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| - A Finnish healthcare company said late Monday it will begin sending samples taken from suspected COVID-19 patients to be analysed in South Korea, as the Nordic country struggles with a shortage of diagnostic equipment. Mehilainen, which owns a string of private clinics across Finland, plans to send 18,000 samples to a South Korean laboratory over the next two weeks, with the first batch of 1,500 test swabs due to depart Helsinki aboard a charter flight on Wednesday evening. The 10-hour return leg of the round trip covering 14,000 kilometres (8,700 miles), operated by national carrier Finnair, will be used to transport protective equipment and additional sampling materials to Finland, Mehilainen said in a statement. "International examples as well as WHO guidance make it clear that increasing testing capacity is central to resolving the coronavirus crisis," Mehilainen said, adding that it had sought to source tests within Finland and elsewhere in Europe, to no avail. South Korea, whose widespread testing and quarantine programme is credited with drastically slowing the spread of the virus in the country, easily meets Mehilainen's testing requirements, the company said. In Finland, authorities have so far screened only 21,000 high-risk patients and healthcare workers for the virus, with other suspected cases remaining untested. Finnish officials have said the true number of infections could be 30 times higher than the 1,300 recorded instances of the new coronavirus, which has so far claimed 17 lives in the country of 5.5 million people. On Monday, the government announced that it would roll out further testing, alongside extending school closures and other limitations on movement until mid-May. Individuals not covered by the government's testing can pay 249 euros ($272) for a test, Mehilainen said, with results available in two days. But the company, which has set up a network of drop-in testing points across Finland, said the service will be available only to patients who fulfil the WHO's recommended criteria for being tested. Despatching medical samples abroad for analysis is not unknown in Finland, but is usually limited to rare conditions. Since the coronavirus crisis began, however, other samples have been sent for testing in neighbouring Estonia, Mehilainen said. sgk/jll/gd
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