As we all know, COVID-19 continues to spread around the world at an alarming rate. Some of the countries impacted earliest are beginning to cautiously emerge from lockdowns of varying scale, while the Americas are currently in the middle of the tackling the pandemic. Many countries are experiencing enormous loss to both their populations and wider economies. This is truly an unprecedented global event which will impact us all for many years to come.
As we have previously discussed, the availability of accurate, timely and cost effective testing is critical to tackling pandemics like COVID-19. Lab-based testing (so-called molecular diagnostics) has been successfully scaled up to a meaningful level in many countries, making it possible for an individual to be diagnosed quickly, sometimes even within 24-hours. Larger countries can now run hundreds of thousands of these types of tests every day, a capacity that, for example, permits the identification of a spike in infections and a rapid subsequent reaction to that outbreak. This is a huge step forward and is testament to the tireless efforts of diagnostic companies and governments around the world.