Fact check: Is this a vaccine to cure novel coronavirus?

New Delhi : Researchers and medical experts are trying their best to develop a vaccine which can cure novel coronavirus (COVID-19) which has claimed around 19000 lives and has infected around 3 lakh people across the world.

However, there is a message on social media that is being circulated with the claims that American scientists have developed a vaccine for the coronavirus and it can cure it in just 3 hours after injection is injected.

Facebook user "Tooro Television" posted a photo of a few sachets on which is written SGTI-flex COVID-19 IgM/IgG. The claim along with the picture says, "#Great news! Carona virus vaccine ready. Able to cure the patient within 3 hours after injection. Hats off to US Scientists. Trump announced that Roche Medical Company will launch the vaccine next Sunday, and millions of doses are ready from it!"

The same claim has been made by the social media user on Instagram and Twitter with the same image.

After researching more about the image that has been attached, it has been found that the claims made are not true. It is not a vaccine but it is a testing kit that has been developed by South Korea.

A reverse search of the photo leads to various news reports which state that South Korean pharma major Sugentech developed a portable diagnostic kit that could tell if you are tested positive or negative for coronavirus in just 10 minutes. The viral photo does have the name Sugentech on the sachets.

To clear the air more, till date there is no official vaccine that has been approved for the treatment of the virus. On January 10, scientists in China had claimed to have formed the genetic sequence of the virus, based on that the vaccine is under the process of being made.