The Gates Foundation is funding a project that plans to offer home-testing kits for coronavirus

(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

last updated 9 March 2020

Bill and Melinda Gates to the rescue?

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is funding a project stemming from the Seattle Flu Study which aims to provide people who believe they may have contracted the novel coronavirus with home testing kits, The Seattle Times reports. Upon request, the kits would be delivered within a matter of hours, and the swabs would then be sent in for analysis with results expected back in one or two days. Per the Times, it could be off the ground in the coming weeks.

The Seattle area, where the project is based, is the most affected area in the United States so far, but people have been frustrated by limiting testing, and there are estimates the number of cases is actually much higher than the confirmed number. So home-testing could go a long way toward slowing transmissions and eventually curb the virus' spread. "Although there's a lot to be worked out, this has enormous potential to turn the tide of the epidemic," said Scott Dowell, the Gates Foundation's coronavirus response leader said. Read more at The Seattle Times.

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.

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