Latvia to roll out COVID tests via vending machine

Record ID: 1590761

  • Title: Latvia to roll out COVID tests via vending machine
  • Date: 10th December 2020
  • Summary: RIGA, LATVIA (DECEMBER 9, 2020) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF VENDING MACHINE SELLING AND RECEIVING COVID-19 TEST KITS BY ENTRANCE TO PAULS STRADINS CLINICAL UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL DOCTOR'S ASSISTANT DAINIS LAUGALIS WALKING TOWARDS VENDING MACHINE LAUGALIS USING MACHINE'S TOUCHSCREEN ROBOTIC ARM BRINGING DOWN TEST KIT (SOUNDBITE) (Latvian) DOCTOR'S ASSISTANT, DAINIS LAUGALIS, SAYING:
  • Embargoed: 24th December 2020 12:37
  • Keywords: Riga contactless vending machine for coronavirus tests coronavirus coronavirus outbreak in Latvia coronavirus test saliva test for COVID-19 testing station
  • Location: RIGA, LATVIA
  • City: RIGA, LATVIA
  • Country: Latvia
  • Topics: Europe,Health/Medicine
  • Reuters ID: LVA001D8FCUGP
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:A vending machine that issues coronavirus tests and stores the samples has been installed in a Latvian hospital, as the Baltic state turns to automation to help contain the pandemic's spread.
    The machine at the Pauls Stradins Clinical University Hospital in Riga is the first of 100 planned under a countrywide rollout and, according to a board member of the company that built it, the first of its kind in the world.
    The machine dispenses PRC swab tests. A technician collects the completed kits once a day and results are available within 24 hours, said Didzis Gavars of the E. Gulbja Laboratory, which developed the machine.
    "You need only saliva, you spit in a jar, close it and it's done," doctor's assistant Dainis Laugalis told Reuters after he returned a sample to the machine on Wednesday (December 9).
    The vending machine reduces the risk of infection while removing the need for two to five medical workers to administer the tests, said Gavars.
    The state is paying for tests at the hospital, where the machine is reserved for staff, but other machines will charge 53 euros ($64) per test.
    COVID-19 has infected more than 68 million people worldwide and killed more than 1.5 million, according to a Reuters tally. The death toll in Latvia is 288.
    (Production: Janis Laizans, Karolina Bohacova)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2020. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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