Two large retailers donate one hundred thousand pieces of swabs needed to test novel coronavirus

One hundred thousand pieces of swabs for nasal and pharyngeal exudate / viral transport medium necessary for running molecular diagnostic tests (Real time Polymerase Chain Reaction -PCR) will be donated by two large retailers, the Health Ministry informed on Wednesday.

The retailers in question are Kaufland Romania and Lidl Romania, with a first batch having already been delivered.

"We welcome the companies' gesture to join us in this period when material and human resources are needed to contain the spreading of the novel coronavirus," Health Minister Victor Costache said in a release sent to AGERPRES.

Over 3,000 swabs are currently in the warehouses of SC Unifarm SA and they are to be distributed to the public health directorates in the territory and in Bucharest.

"According to the provisions of the Minister of Health, a number of 25,000 of the received exudates will be distributed to the public health directorates for use in the epidemiological investigations started, another 5,000 will remain at Unifarm SA as a strategic stock," SC Unifarm SA Director Adrian Ion said.