LatinNews Regional Monitor: Caribbean & Central America - 31 March 2020

* Panama’s institute for scientific research and high technology services (Indicasat AIP), an institute set up by the government in 2002, has announced that its scientists have transformed their labs, which are normally used for scientific research, into a small factory producing viral transport mediums (VTM), solutions of reagents which preserve the conditions of the coronavirus (Covid-19) so that it can be identified during testing. Health Minister Rosario Turner had asked Indicasat AIP to collaborate with another medical research centre, the Gorgas memorial institute for health studies (ICGES), to determine the components of the reagents and to work, despite the national quarantine, to produce VTM locally. The institute produced 2,000 VTMs over the weekend (28-29 March) and has established daily rotations of all its technical staff to produce 1,000 VTMs per day to cover the demand of the health ministry. 

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