India, Israel to jointly develop rapid testing tools for COVID-19 that can detect virus ‘under 30 sec’
India and Israel will join forces for research and development of rapid testing tools for COVID-19, the Israeli Embassy in Delhi said on Thursday. The Embassy said that in the coming weeks, Israel Foreign Ministry, Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Health will lead an unprecedented anti-COVID19 cooperation operation between India and Israel. A special planned flight from Tel Aviv to New Delhi is set to carry a high ranking Ministry of Defence, R&D team which has been working with India’s chief scientist K. Vijay Raghavan and DRDO to develop rapid testing for COVID-19 in under 30 seconds.
The flight will also bring breakthrough Israeli technologies for combatting COVID-19, donated by Israel Foreign Ministry and pvt sector. The plane will deliver mechanical ventilators which were given special permission by the Govt of Israel for export to India.
Since outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have held three telephonic conversations in which they promised mutual assistance in dealing with virus& committed to joint technological and scientific research between the countries.
Reportedly, one of Israel’s leading pharmaceutical companies, Pluristem Therapeutics, has also been testing the use of human placenta cells for potential treatment of covid-19. The team had initially tested it on seven critical covid-19 patients, and found positive results. It was looking to seek approval to begin early clinical trials.
