Zubair Qureshi
Karandaaz Pakistan has provided financing to Excel Labs to enable the lab conduct COVID-19 testing. With this funding, Excel Labs is building its capacity to carry out an estimated 500 tests daily and more than 10,000 tests a month. This emergency response will help the country build critical testing capacity to test, track and control the spread of COVID-19.
At present, Pakistan is administering less than 1,000 tests per one million citizens, compared to more than 18,000in the US, 12,000 in the UK, 113,000in the UAE, 30,000 in Germany, and 5,000 tests per one million people in Iran.
In addition to the financing at zero percent mark-up, a grant by Karandaaz will also be provided to Excel Labs for subsidising around 4,000 tests. Subsidized tests will be available to vulnerable categories, including those above 65 years of age, doctors and nurses exposed to the Corona virus, and poor individuals who cannot afford the test.
Karandaaz’s existing investment in Excel Labs, a laboratory and diagnostic service provider in Pakistan, has already enabled it to expand its service by three times, and created 735 new jobs including almost 700 for women and youth. Excel Labs has a presence at more than 104 locations across Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Azad Jammu & Kashmir. The Lab currently offer a total of 727 types of tests; with this concessional financing from Karandaaz, Excel Labs will be able to expand its diagnostic tests portfolio to identify carriers and patients of the corona virus.
