Prognosis
Singapore’s Pivot to Mass Tests Challenged by Kit Shortage
- City trying to boost testing fivefold but faces shortages
- City moving later to mass testing after pandemic went global
A healthcare worker collects a nasal swab in Singapore on April 27.
Photographer: Roslan Rahman/AFP via Getty Images
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In a back room of Singaporean dentist Teehee Dental Works, three orange-topped boxes hum with a sterile buzz.
Over the next three hours, a thousand strands of liquid resin will form and harden to become plastic nasal swabs, ready to be used in Covid-19 test kits. Those 3D printers – normally making dentures and crowns – are a part of a local effort to re-tool some of Singapore’s industries to respond to a growing need for test kits amid the widening coronavirus pandemic.