UP develops test kit for novel coronavirus

Scientists at UP Manila's National Institutes of Health have developed a test kit to help the Department of Health (DOH) confirm cases of the novel coronavirus.

The test kit will be released next week for DOH evaluation and could speed up detection of 2019-nCoV in patient samples.

UP scientists created the test kit after Chinese scientists made the virus's whole genome sequence public.

Currently, the DOH uses primers from Japan for confirmatory tests as commercial test kits are not yet available.