Panel SA: Covid test supplier triples production and plans emergency shipment

After doubling production in the face of the race for Covid tests, test providers are now trying to triple the volume, but face a lack of input.

Eco Diagnóstica, which had already decided to double the daily production of tests to 80,000, already plans to reach 120,000 by the end of next week, with three work shifts.

With the explosion in demand, the company suffered from a shortage of inputs from abroad, according to Vinicius Pereira, the company’s president. He claims that he mostly lacked supplies from South Korea.

“We managed to regularize it now, but if the demand is going to remain high in the next 60 or 90 days, it will be lacking again”, he says.

MedLevensohn, another provider of rapid tests for Covid in the country, says it is in talks with suppliers to bring emergency shipments to Brazil.

In the first ten days of January, the company recorded a 400% increase in the sale of exams compared to the monthly average for 2021, which was 200,000 exams.

Alexandre Bitencourt, president of Sindilab-DF, which brings together companies from the private clinical analysis network in the Federal District, said that, on Thursday (13), it was no longer possible to buy imported inputs for the tests.

“What we have is stock. Our suppliers promised to deliver the reagents only on the 28th. It’s an international fight. The whole world, once again, is experiencing the drama of buying at the same time”, he says.

He also shows concern about the lack of professionals.

“We are having an internal problem of excess medical certificates in the team. Very unusual leave due to Covid, Influenza or both. It is a difficult professional to get in the market. When he leaves, we are sorely missed”, says Bittencourt.

with Andressa Motter e Ana Paula Branco