South Korea to export 6 lakh COVID-19 testing kits to US: Reports

While most countries are currently battling with coronavirus outbreak, South Korea is planning to send COVID-19 kits to the United States, which can conduct up to 600,000 tests for the pathogen. An official from Seoul told an international news agency on the condition of anonymity that, it was decided after the appeal by US President Donald Trump over the phone to South Korean President Moon Jae-in on March 25, while the US was struggling with escalating cases of the coronavirus. South Korea-based companies have previously shipped kits to the US but reportedly this latest one will be the first bulk order from the US federal government. 

As of April 13, South Korea has recorded at least 10,537 confirmed cases of coronavirus with 217 fatalities, while the US has reported at least 560,433 with 22,115 deaths. According to the international news agency, a cargo plane of Federal Emergency Management Agency carrying the entire equipment is scheduled to leave 1330 GMT on April 14 and the report was confirmed by South Korean foreign minister Kang Kyung-wha in an interview with a French channel. South Korea will also import an additional package of kits that can reportedly conduct as many as 150,000 tests through an unspecified local retailer. 

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All 50 states under disaster declaration in US

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump issued a disaster declaration for Wyoming on April 12 which implies that all 50 states will be under such declaration “for the first time in history”. The White House Press Secretary, Judd Deere, also said that it was the first time a US President has ever declared a major disaster in all its states at once. Donald Trump not only tweeted about the move himself but also said that the country is "winning" against the "war with the invisible enemy". 

The declaration came on the same day the US surpassed the COVID-19 death toll of Italy which is also one of the hardest-hit countries of the pandemic outside China, where it originated. It was Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon who was formally seeking the declaration on April 9 by writing to Trump when the state reportedly had more than 200 cases of coronavirus infections at the time.

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(With agency inputs)