TEHRAN – The Iranian Defense Ministry will produce diagnostic kits for the novel coronavirus, known as COVID-19, by the next week, Kianoush Jahanpour, head of the Iranian health ministry’s public relations department, has said.

COVID-19 diagnostic kits, produced by technological department of the Defense Ministry, will be supplied to the health sector by the next week,” he wrote on his Twitter account, IRNA reported on Friday.

On February 2, Iran announced that it has received the fourth batch of test kits, special for diagnosing the coronavirus, with the assistance of Christoph Hamelmann, World Health Organization (WHO) Representative in the country.

Meanwhile, China has delivered 250,000 face masks and 5,000 COVID-19 diagnostic kits to Iran.

Some 5,000 coronavirus test kits, a gift from the Chinese embassy and Chinese companies in Iran, was delivered to the Iranian side, China’s Ambassador to Iran Chang Hua wrote on his Twitter account on February 26, adding that “our efforts will continue.

Previously, Jahanpour said that there are three stages to diagnose coronavirus, adding that the last stage is for the novel coronavirus.

Any person suspected of coronavirus infection initially undergoes a standard polymerase chain reaction (PCR), then if the test was positive, the novel coronavirus test will be conducted on the patient, he explained.

MG