As the second wave of coronavirus pandemic claims dozens of lives each passing day, the Government of Pakistan has given permission to a pharmaceutical company to import rapid COVID testing kits from Germany.

The Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) has approved the registration and use of rapid testing kits that can diagnose persons suffering from COVID-19 within 20 minutes.

“These rapid kits will help increase our daily testing capacity, besides making the infection tests affordable to a large population,” Asim Rauf, chief executive officer at DRAP, told Arab News.

“Some rapid testing kits are already available in the country, and more will be available in the next couple of weeks,” Rauf said.

As per the report, the rapid test is likely to cost about Rs2,000 and deliver the result in 20 minutes.

“The government is not spending a penny on the import of these kits since a private company is introducing them here to provide another option to patients who want to get themselves tested for the virus,” Rauf added.

The nationwide coronavirus tally reached 386,198 on Thursday after 3,306 cases were reported across the country.

In the last 24 hours, 45,999 tests were conducted for the novel virus out of which Sindh reported 1,348 cases, Punjab 720, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 514 and Balochistan reported 51 new infections.

Meanwhile, Islamabad, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir collectively recorded 673 coronavirus cases. The country also reported 40 deaths in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 7,843. 1,968 virus patients are in critical condition.