Discovery of 6,000 Swabs at Landspítali Is Huge Relief
Karl G. Kristinsson, head physician at the medical microbiology and virology department of Landspítali mbl.is/Golli
About 6,000 swabs for testing for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 were discovered at the medical microbiology and virology department of Landspítali this morning.
“This is a huge relief, and it’s of great help,” states Karl G. Kristinsson, head physician at the department. This means there are currently about 9,000 swabs available in Iceland. The swabs were discovered where the department’s supplies are stored. These swabs expire next month, since these are old supplies, but there is nothing to prevent them from being used now.
“We were expecting 10,000 swabs from the US, but they went instead to the highest bidder, who paid in cash,” Karl states.
It remains unclear whether 20,000 swabs, provided by Össur prosthetics firm, are usable for testing for the virus. There are hopes that deCode Genetics will be able to use those for screening.
