Tech giant Amazon is teaming up with researchers funded by Bill Gates to pick up and deliver coronavirus test kits. The Gates Foundation-backed Seattle Coronavirus Assessment Network (SCAN) is learning how the infection spreads by analysing swabs among residents of Seattle’s King County in Washington, among the areas hardest hit by the virus in the US. Pilot healthcare service Amazon Care will assist by delivering test kits to people’s homes and then picking them up for researchers. If the virus is detected, the participant will then be put in touch with healthcare workers. The partnership could help improve coronavirus testing in the US. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday reported 33,453 cases of coronavirus in the country. That’s an increase of 18,185 cases from its previous count, while the death toll almost doubled to 400. The Gates Foundation along with research charity Wellcome and Mastercard‘s Impact Charity have committed $125 million in funding to develop treatments for the coronavirus.

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