The advancement of the Ômicron variant caused the demand for tests for Covid-19 to increase exponentially in December and earlier this month, leading to a shortage of diagnoses in several parts of the country.
The president of the Brazilian Chamber of Laboratory Diagnostics (CBDL), Carlos Eduardo Gouvêa, stated, in an interview with CNN this Wednesday (12), that the industry expects that by the end of January the test stock will be normalized.
The demand for tests for Covid-19 and positive diagnoses in pharmacies in the first week of January has already surpassed the entire month of December. In the same period, the performance of exams in the private network increased by 98%.
In addition to this sudden growth, the prevalence of two diseases with similar symptoms – Covid and the flu – was not expected by the sector, said the president of CDBL.
According to what Gouvêa explained, 70% of the tests are imported, while the production of the other 30% still depends on inputs coming from abroad.
Finally, Gouvêa stated that new tests are expected to be delivered next week, but “not in volumes as significant as we would like”. Even so, he said test makers work at double the scale to meet demand.
Watch the full interview in the video above.
*under the supervision of Elis Franco, from CNN
Reference: CNN Brasil
