New locally produced Covid-19 test kits to be distributed soon

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New locally produced Covid-19 test kits to be distributed soon

By The Nation

 

File photo

 

Siam Bioscience has joined hands with the Department of Medical Science to develop a new test kit for detecting Covid-19, and the first lot of 20,000 kits was delivered to Government House today (April 2).

 

Each locally produced test kit costs around Bt1,500, while imported ones go for about Bt4,500 each.

 

The collaboration aims to produce 20,000 test kits every week, and when 100,000 have been produced, they will be distributed among 100 hospitals nationwide.

 

Meanwhile, the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation on Wednesday (April 1) approved the urgent purchase of 400,000 N95 masks and the same number of personal protection suits from China. A budget of Bt660 million has been earmarked for the purchase.

 

China will send 150,000 sets by air within this week and will ship 250,000 sets in a few weeks.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30385285

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-04-02

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[jojothai]

Its only a very small number of test kits. Millions are needed.

And who are these test kits and masks, etc for?

Will they really go to the public hospitals?

The virus is very likely here to stay for a long time until there is a vaccine.

I understand that plaquenil from suppliers here has been requisitioned by the government.

Will it go to hospitals, or who is that likely to be kept for?

[FarFlungFalang]

2 minutes ago, jojothai said:

And who are the test kits and masks, etc for?

I've heard a certain drug smuggling politician has put in an order.

[lujanit]

If the test kits are not based on PCR analysis they, at best show a false negative or false positive.  Where is the proof these new kits work?

[brain150]

And what does the test actually "test" ???

[Sharp]

Wouldnt an anti body test be the way to go .

 

Test  / positive = caught it immune system kicked in immunity confirmed /Off you go to work

 

Or am i missing something here.

[lujanit]

1 minute ago, Sharp said:

Wouldnt an anti body test be the way to go .

 

Test  / positive = caught it immune system kicked in immunity confirmed /Off you go to work

 

Or am i missing something here.

An antibody test only tells that you have had cv and your body has produced antibodies.  Only a PCR test will tell if you have contracted the virus and it’s still active in the body.

[Krataiboy]

35 minutes ago, lujanit said:

If the test kits are not based on PCR analysis they, at best show a false negative or false positive.  Where is the proof these new kits work?

Oooh, you mustn't be asking naughty questions like that!

[Pedrogaz]

O wonder if these will be as good as the bomb detectors ordered at great expense by the army a few years back?

[inactiveposter]

“The collaboration aims to produce 20,000 test kits every week, and when 100,000 have been produced, they will be distributed among 100 hospitals nationwide.”

is this a translation error? Or just more ridiculous decisions? If they wait until 100,000 are produced, that’s 5 WEEKS! I’d say “unbelievable” but unfortunately it’s too believable.

[rabas]

33 minutes ago, inactiveposter said:

“The collaboration aims to produce 20,000 test kits every week, and when 100,000 have been produced, they will be distributed among 100 hospitals nationwide.”

is this a translation error? Or just more ridiculous decisions? If they wait until 100,000 are produced, that’s 5 WEEKS! I’d say “unbelievable” but unfortunately it’s too believable.

The original announcement on the new testing method, a week or more ago, was 10,000 per day at two facilities for 20,000/day, IIRC. So yes, maybe this is a translation error.  Hope so.

 

[Mavideol]

1 hour ago, FarFlungFalang said:

I've heard a certain drug smuggling politician has put in an order.

does the name starts with an "A"

[rabas]

1 hour ago, lujanit said:

If the test kits are not based on PCR analysis they, at best show a false negative or false positive.  Where is the proof these new kits work?

If it's the same high volume method announced a week or two ago, it's based on new RNA detection technology using CRISPR and is more accurate and more sensitive than PCR. IOW they are getting better.

[DrTuner]

Could they please add if it's antibody or the PTT/MIT/etc CRISPR one. There's a huge difference, antibodies only develop after some time (days), the CRISPR kit is as fast as RT-PCR and can be used for diagnosis in earlier stages. 

[kingstonkid]

Anything that gives them a chance will be better than nothing.  Just hope that they make it accessible to us old guys

 

[JungleBiker]

4 hours ago, jojothai said:

 

The virus is very likely here to stay for a long time until there is a vaccine.

 

 

Besides vaccines, there is another way to reduce deaths...

 

Intravenous hyperimmune globulin injections from the blood of recovered persons, and monoclonal antibodies, look like they will be very effective and will be available very soon (JAMA, published online March 27, 2020). Blood from patients who have recovered from COVID-19 contains IgG and IgM antibodies that can kill the virus (JAMA editorial, March 27, 2020) Blood tests will soon be approved to see if a person has been infected with COVID-19 and is therefore now immune. These people may then be able to treat people who are currently infected, and to donate blood with the antibodies that could be helpful in treating COVID-19 patients.

 

Source - newsletter from DrMirkin.com 

 

 

[DrTuner]

4 minutes ago, JungleBiker said:

 

Besides vaccines, there is another way to reduce deaths...

 

Intravenous hyperimmune globulin injections from the blood of recovered persons, and monoclonal antibodies, look like they will be very effective and will be available very soon (JAMA, published online March 27, 2020). Blood from patients who have recovered from COVID-19 contains IgG and IgM antibodies that can kill the virus (JAMA editorial, March 27, 2020) Blood tests will soon be approved to see if a person has been infected with COVID-19 and is therefore now immune. These people may then be able to treat people who are currently infected, and to donate blood with the antibodies that could be helpful in treating COVID-19 patients.

 

Source - newsletter from DrMirkin.com 

 

 

Yes, I posted about this, perhaps in September, results from simply using plasma were a bit mixed: 

 

[Letseng]

5 hours ago, lujanit said:

If the test kits are not based on PCR analysis they, at best show a false negative or false positive.  Where is the proof these new kits work?

Perhaps those look for antibodies.

[Letseng]

16 minutes ago, DrTuner said:

Yes, I posted about this, perhaps in September, results from simply using plasma were a bit mixed: 

 

Passive immunisation trials are being done all over the world. 

[Ducatiski]

Anyone can get a test now, you just have to “cough” up the spondulics so to speak.  At BKK hospital in Hua Hin its just over 9000 THB for a Corona virus test.

[humbug]

Anything to keep the anti-western blame game going, just don’t want to lose face, that their Han Chinese connections brought the country and the world the Wuhan virus

[Iron Tongue]

20 hours ago, rabas said:

The original announcement on the new testing method, a week or more ago, was 10,000 per day at two facilities for 20,000/day, IIRC. So yes, maybe this is a translation error.  Hope so.

 

So at a rate of 20,000/day for a population of 70,000,000, that means there will be enough kits for everyone in just under 10-years!

[Reigntax]

Surely the anti covid amulets would be a higher priority and be more in demand

[DrTuner]

4 hours ago, Ducatiski said:

Anyone can get a test now, you just have to “cough” up the spondulics so to speak.  At BKK hospital in Hua Hin its just over 9000 THB for a Corona virus test.

PCR, CRISPR, antibody or plain old CT scan+blood panel, that is the question.

[Cake Monster]

23 hours ago, lujanit said:

If the test kits are not based on PCR analysis they, at best show a false negative or false positive.  Where is the proof these new kits work?

If they are a cloned copy of some of the Chinese versions, they are found to be very flawed .

[HaoleBoy]

How long to get results from test?  The current tests (for 7500 THB) you get results "within" 5 days.

[Dogmatix]

23 hours ago, Sharp said:

Wouldnt an anti body test be the way to go .

 

Test  / positive = caught it immune system kicked in immunity confirmed /Off you go to work

 

Or am i missing something here.

Is there any evidence that you can get more than limited immunity for a limited period of time? That's what happens with the common cold coronavirus.

[atsiii]

So, when hundreds of thousands if not millions of tests are needed yesterday, they will provide just 100,000 of these new tests... 5 WEEKS FROM NOW?  

[DrTuner]

7 minutes ago, Dogmatix said:

Is there any evidence that you can get more than limited immunity for a limited period of time? That's what happens with the common cold coronavirus.

Haven't seen any yet, only mention I've seen has been the estimate from CEO of Centivax, 8-10 weeks.