The government of Maldives is expecting to receive 25,000 cartridges used in GeneXpert machines for Covid-19 testing, within the ongoing month.

This was revealed by the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) during a press briefing on Saturday night, as such, the task force’s spokesperson, Mohamed Mabrook Aziz revealed that the Ministry of Health is working to acquire 25,000 cartridges for the GeneXpert machines used for Covid-19 testing, through the World Health Organization (WHO).

Hospitals scattered across six regions of the island nation currently have these machines that are operated for Covid-19 testing.

Very recently the WHO granted approval for the creators of the GeneXpert machines to develop these cartridges and once the Maldivian government acquires them, they can be used for Covid-19 across several regions in the island nation.

Covid-19 tests are carried out at the National Reference Laboratory at Indhira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) and the Forensic Laboratory at Maldives Police Service (MPS) currently and the state-run hospital has trained a total of 16 laboratory technicians to conduct these tests.

While inadequate testing capacity is one of the biggest challenges facing the country’s response efforts to Covid-19, the government is working tirelessly to increase the country’s Covid-19 testing capacity. In light of this, Mabrook earlier revealed that they are working to bring additional machines for testing, by May 17. This will increase the country’s testing capacity to 600 – 650 per day.