Philippine Navy (PN) flag officer in Command vice-admiral Giovanni Carlo Bacordo said that Covid-19 has delayed the delivery of a new Jose Rizal-class frigate, reported Manila Bulletin. The future BRP Antonio Luna (FF-151) was planned for delivery in October this year. It has now been postponed to the first quarter of next year. The pandemic has also affected delivery schedules of other procurements such as light armoured systems upgrade, squad rocket launcher light, fast attack interdiction craft missiles, landing docks and more, according to the newspaper.
The US Department of Defense (DOD) has invested in BioFire Defense to boost the domestic production capacity for molecular diagnostic testing. The $3.1m funding will be used by BioFire Defense to install two new production lines at its facility in Salt Lake City, Utah. The company will be able to increase its manufacturing capacity of tests by three folds from next month. The tests will be used with BioFire FilmArray instruments deployed in the DOD and Department of State. The investment has been funded through the Defense Production Act (DPA) Title III programme.
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The US Army’s overseas military hospital Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (LRMC) has introduced a high-throughput testing system for Covid-19. The automated system is 74in/32in and capable of up to 1,000 Covid-19 tests per day at the hospital. The FDA approved device is configured for the Covid-19 assay. LRMC Department of Pathology and Area Laboratory Services chief US Army lieutenant colonel David Peterson said: “This particular analyser has both a high throughput and a shorter turnaround time. So results are available more quickly, and we can do a higher volume of testing on this analyser.”
