A Toronto-based Pakistani physician, Dr Naqeeb Khalid, has successfully introduced an instant Covid-19 diagnostic test using a smartphone. Pakistan High Commissioner to Canada Raza Bashir Tarar congratulated Dr Khalid for his extraordinary achievement.

The high commissioner expressed the hope that clinical trials of the innovation would prove its efficacy for the Covid-19 test and pave the way for necessary approvals before mass application. He conveyed his best wishes to Dr Khalid and his brother, Najeeb Khalid, who collaborated with him due to his background in a broad range of engineering and science disciplines.

Dr Khalid, who graduated from King Edward Medical University in 1983 before acquiring experience in invention of medical devices and systems, told Tarar that his innovation was based on a digital platform that displays the result instantly on any smartphone and can also communicate or store the results along with time and GPS information.

A smartphone app will be available for download from the App Store. “Instant, accurate and low-cost testing that does not rely on laboratory testing is essential in containing the pandemic and together with vaccines, we can control the Covid-19 outbreak and return our lives and economies to normal,” said Najeeb Khalid.