Following a request from President Trump, South Korea plans to deliver 600,000 coronavirus testing kits to the US on Tuesday, according to a new report.
A cargo plane for the Federal Emergency Management Agency is scheduled to take off with the supplies at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, a Seoul official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Trump made the request for the kits during a phone call with President Moon Jae-in on March 25, according to the news outlet.
The US government will receive and pay for the first shipments, while an unspecified local retailer will sell an additional 150,000 kits in the near future, the official told Reuters.
The polymerase chain reaction kits will be sourced from three firms that recently obtained preliminary approval from the US Food and Drug Administration to export kits to the US, said the official, who declined to name the two companies that will send the kits Tuesday.
But a person with direct knowledge of the matter said on condition of anonymity that one of the two companies is Osang Healthcare, which will send 300,000 kits.
The South Korean Foreign Ministry said it did not have information to share immediately and calls to Osang Healthcare for comment from Reuters were not answered.
South Korean companies have already shipped test kits to American cities, including Los Angeles, but Tuesday’s delivery would mark the first bulk order from the federal government.
Topics #coronavirus #News #south korea
