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Birgunj now boasts machine to test coronavirus within one hour

File: Coronavirus tests are underway at a lab in Nepalgunj.

Birgunj, August 17

A new machine has been installed at the Narayani Hospital in Birgunj, a Covid-19 hub of the country, that can show results of coronavirus tests within an hour.

The Xpert Xpress SARS-CoV-2 technology is also approved by the World Health Organisation.

However, in general cases, the real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test is preferred because the Xpert Xpress technology costs high, according to the hospital’s medical superintendent Dr Madan Upadhyaya.

“Its reagent is costly. We have only 300 kits for this,” he says, “Hence, we cannot do it for everyone. We have been using it for emergency cases, those undergoing treatment at intensive care units, and those in serious condition.” Likewise, this technology has been used to confirm infection in deceased people also, according to him.

Meanwhile, the hospital says it will inform the test results via mobile phone from now onwards.

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