Bill Gates Is Donating Rs 37 Crore Of Coronavirus Test Kits For Free, Which Is Awesome

Coronavirus cases in the US are rising at an exponential rate, especially in the city of Seattle in Washington.

On Sunday, the death toll in Washington state reached 19 and the confirmed cases, reported by the Washington Department of Health, hit at least 136.

Reuters

To tackle the rising number of cases, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has now supported a project worth $5 million that will facilitate at-home coronavirus test kits to those at risk in the Seattle area.

According to Scott Dowell, leader of coronavirus response at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in a conversation with Seattle Times, their main motive is to eventually process thousands of tests every day, using these kits. These kits will allow people to take swabs of their noses and send the samples for testing.

Dowel has stated that the results will be released within a day or two. Moreover, the infected people would have to fill a small questionnaire with their whereabouts and their travelling history to better understand the route of the novel coronavirus.

He said in a statement to Times, ¡°One of the most important things from our perspective, having watched and worked on this in other parts of the world, is the identification of people who are positive for the virus, so they can be safely isolated and cared for, and the identification of their contacts, who can then be quarantined.¡±

Reuters

He further added, ¡°Although there's a lot to be worked out, this has enormous potential to turn the tide of the epidemic.¡±

This is one of the several ways the $100 million pledge by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is being used to fight against COVID-19. Last week they were also responsible for funding cure for Coronavirus in Belgium. The foundation has paid for 15,000 medicinal molecules to be shipped to a leading laboratory in Belgium to test and be a potential cure to the novel coronavirus.