On April 5, an U.S. magazine, Forbes reported on a firm Seegene from South Korea, who developed the diagnostic test kits for COVID-19 and its executive Chun Jong-yoon. Based on the report, on December 31, the first news reached South Korea of a cluster of coronavirus infections in Wuhan. Seegene’s chief executive Chun Jong-yoon was already anticipating the worst, as the risk of a global outbreak was high. Chun immediately ceased all other work at his Seoul-based biotech firm, Seegene, and ordered his lead researcher and staff to focus entirely on producing a diagnostic kit for the Covid-19. “Development needed to be very fast,” Chun says. “Before the situation became more serious, we had to be prepared.”

In two weeks Seegene had developed its test and got approved for the use on February 12 from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC). Such go-aheads typically take at least six months; European health authorities gave approval five days earlier. “It was an urgent matter so it was important to respond quickly,” Chun says. “The fact that the KCDC approved this in two weeks was unprecedented.”

It was the availability of Seegene’s test kits, along with the government’s rapid response to do massive testing and other measures, that helped South Korea contain the spread of Covid-19. In a country of 51 million, South Korea has recorded less than 10,000 cases, below the figure for Switzerland, with a population of 8.6 million.

Previously producing 100,000 tests per week, the firm says its capacity has risen to 1 million tests. It has tests going to 40 countries including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and countries around Asia; it submitted the test to the U.S. and is awaiting approval from the FDA. With infections still spreading worldwide, Seegene is now preparing to ramp up production even more.

“Right now we are stopping everything else and putting all our effort into producing the kits,” Chun says. “The demand from governments and medical agencies has been overwhelming. We could potentially supply as much as 3 million test kits per week.

But if there is still a shortage, we could provide the expertise [for others] to develop the kit for free. We have that intention,” he says. “The virus shouldn’t spread due to limitations in testing.”

Seegene’s test resides in a single test tube, where it identifies three target genes present in Covid-19. Because it streamlines the testing process, it takes a tenth the time of manual tests and reduces the risk of human error in diagnosis.

Such molecular diagnostics—in contrast to older immunodiagnostics—are faster and more accurate, Chun says. It also means people infected with Covid-19 can be spotted before they show any symptoms.

Becasue of the fast development of the kits by the Seegene and the fast approval for the use by the KCDC, it is possible to the massive test for the COVID-19 in South Korea. This shows that the government and private companies share a sense of crisis caused by the COVID-19 and cooperate with each other while doing their best to overcome the crisis in their respective positions.