An initiative by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to help some 120 countries contain the COVID-19 pandemic has received strong extrabudgetary backing from Member States, with voluntary pledges so far totalling around € 22 million, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said today.

The funds will enable the IAEA to assist hundreds of laboratories around the world in the use of a nuclear-derived testing technique called real time reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction (real time RT-PCR). The method is currently the fastest and most accurate to detect the virus causing COVID-19.