Pakistani doctor develops instant Covid-19 test via smartphone

What happened : Toronto based Pakistani doctor, Dr Naqeeb Khalid has introduced an instant Covid-19 diagnostic test easily accessible using a smartphone. Dr Naqeeb Khalid, who graduated from King Edward Medical University in 1983 before gaining expertise in the invention of medical devices and systems, told High Commissioner for Pakistan to Canada, Raza Bashir Tarar, that his innovation is based on a digital platform that displays the result instantly on any smartphone and can also communicate or store the results along with time frame and GPS information. He hoped that such a quick, hassle-free, easily accessible and affordable invention would be of immense help to humanity in overcoming the ongoing pandemic and fighting viruses and curb their transmission. He said that instant, accurate and low-cost testing that does not rely on laboratory is significant in containing the pandemic. “Together with vaccines, we can control the Covid-19 outbreak and return to our pre-covid lives and economies to normal.”