Rapid coronavirus tests will soon be delivered to lower income countries after WHO approval

Maria Van Kerkhove.
(Image credit: FABRICE COFFRINI/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Low- and middle-income countries should expect a boost in coronavirus testing soon, The Guardian reports.

Rapid and affordable coronavirus antigen tests from two different companies — SD BioSensor in South Korea and Abbott in the U.S. — will soon be distributed across the world as part of the global Access to Covid Tools initiative, which was launched in March by the World Health Organization, the European commission, the Gates Foundation, and the French government. The WHO has granted BioSensor's test emergency approval and is expected to do so for Abbott's in the near future, with 20 percent of their production going to lower income countries.

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Tim O'Donnell

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.