Singapore pharmacies to sell DIY Covid-19 test kits
Singapore officials will start rolling out Covid-19 self-test kits to be sold at selected pharmacies from June 16.
CAPE TOWN, June 14 (ANA) – Singapore officials will start rolling out Covid-19 self-test kits to be sold at selected pharmacies from June 16.
According to Channel NewsAsia, a Singapore-based broadcaster, the test kits will cost between S$10 to S$13 and can produce results within 15 minutes.
As testing becomes part of the “new normal”, experts say this will improve the reach and speed in Singapore’s fight against Covid-19.
“This will allow flexibility to people to use in different settings like at home, at school, at the workplace or even at concerts and before travel,” said Sanjeev Johar, Asia Pacific president of Abbott Rapid Diagnostics.
While Abbott does not have enough stock to meet the current demand, other brands are also stepping up as they expect popularity in the self-test kits to rise.
Meanwhile, the Singapore government has said that should anyone test positive from the self-administered test, they should visit a clinic immediately to confirm the results through a PCR test.
A journalist from the Straits Times put the self-administered Covid-19 kits to the test and reported that the test kit came with a full instruction manual, a swab, test device, a tiny bottle of solution and a tube to hold the mixture.
“Before starting, I had to wash and dry my hands. Then, I had to squeeze liquid from the bottle into the tube, making sure it was filled up to a specific level,” read the report.
“I went on to the swab… Removing the stick from its sealed packaging, I took a deep breath and gently pushed it into my nostril,” he said.
The tester added that the trickiest part of the test was not knowing whether the swab had gone sufficiently deep enough; however, the instructions said to insert it about 2cm deep until resistance is felt.
One then needs to rotate the swab five times, then put the stick into a tube of liquid and swirl it before breaking off the swab along a demarcated line and leaving it in the tube.
Finally, to complete the test, five droplets from the tube of liquid need to be squeezed onto the test device and the results will show within 15 minutes.
– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Yaron Blecher