Coronavirus: inside the hi-tech Abu Dhabi laboratory screening thousands of school pupils

Coronavirus: inside the hi-tech Abu Dhabi laboratory screening thousands of school pupils

A high-tech laboratory in Abu Dhabi is doubling up as a Covid-19 testing centre for school pupils to boost the UAE's fight against the pandemic.

Biogenix Labs in Masdar City, operated by G42 Healthcare, is conducting saliva tests on children aged between four and 12 to aid the education sector's efforts to return to in-person teaching.

The saliva test is less invasive than the PCR test and the lab typically delivers results in three hours.

More than 10,000 pupils in Abu Dhabi have already taken the test, either at the lab or at their school, since a screening drive was launched in December.