TEHRAN – A consignment of COVID-19 diagnostic kits manufactured by an Iranian knowledge-based company has been exported to Germany.

The shipment has consisted of 40,000 coronavirus detection kits, Behrooz Hajian Tehrani, project manager and CEO of the manufacturing company said on Tuesday, ISNA news agency reported.

Referring to the company's background of producing tumor marker test kits, infectious and hormonal diseases and more than five types of biochemical kits, he said that “So far, these products have been exported to countries such as Germany, Italy, Belgium, Brazil, South Korea, and Turkey.”

Emphasizing that the diagnostic kits made by this company have been able to receive complex processes for obtaining a license in the country, he announced the kits have also obtained the European CE (certification mark that indicates conformity with health, safety, and environmental protection standards) license.

There are about 150 companies and research centers around the world who could produce these kits, most of which are based in China and the United States, while many developed European countries have not yet been able to create the test kits, he explained.

“The shipment, which was exported to Germany today, includes 40,000 diagnostic tests,” he stated, adding, “Turkey, Ecuador, Brazil, and Spain are among the countries that have applied to buy Iranian kits to diagnose coronavirus infection.”

With the onset of the epidemic, Iranian researchers soon achieved the technology to produce three kinds of COVID-19 diagnostic kits that hit the market.

Two types of diagnostic kits are now mass-produced by knowledge-based companies, first one is the RT-PCR tests, 8 million of which are being produced per month; while the other is serology-based tests that a total of 400,000 are being manufactured monthly and is expected to reach up to 2 million.

The first cases of COVID-19 were identified in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019, which has now spread to more than 210 countries, infecting nearly 3,663,968 people and killing more than 252,758. 

Some 100,000 people have so far been diagnosed with the coronavirus in Iran, the health ministry announced on Tuesday.

Health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said that the total number of people diagnosed with the coronavirus has reached 99,970 of whom 6,340 have lost their lives.

However, fortunately, 80,474 patients, equaling 80.5 percent of the total, have recovered from the disease.

FB/MG