Continually supporting the community during the COVID-19 outbreak, Ooredoo has donated medical testing supplies to Sultan Qaboos University Hospital in Muscat. The ‘GeneExpert’ devices are designed to analyse and detect results in less than an hour, prior to which tests were taking six hours of continuous work and a whole team of laboratory technicians. The effort is the latest in a number of COVID-19 support initiatives Ooredoo is undertaking as part of its Goodwill CSR programme.

Feras bin Abdullah Al Shaikh, Director of Branding and Communications at Ooredoo, said, “At Ooredoo we consider ourselves to be an integral part of Omani society, and it is our duty to do what we can to assist our fellow members of the community, especially during such challenging times. With medical teams across the country continuing to work tirelessly to reduce the spread of the virus, we will continue doing whatever we can to make their lives and jobs easier.”

Dr. Zakaria Bin Khalifa Al Muharrami, Head of Microbiology and Immunology Department at Sultan Qaboos University Hospital, added: “We thank Ooredoo for their efforts in providing us with this much-needed equipment to deal with COVID-19 quickly. Sultan Qaboos University Hospital previously obtained this state-of-the-art medical device. Due to the increasing demand for this device in recent times, we are lucky to have obtained it once again with the support of Ooredoo, so that we can continue to provide care and help patients faster than ever.”

With this advanced technology, the hospital will be able to examine more patients and receive results much faster. This will allow for the appropriate course of treatment to be applied without any delay. Previously, obtaining results for just one sample would take up to six hours, and with a large number of tests required, up to 24-hour delays were occurring.

In addition to its CSR initiatives, Ooredoo has announced a number of initiatives, offers and exciting deals that aim to help the community stay connected during this pandemic. This includes free calls and data to urge customers to stay at home, upgrades to its range of innovative digital services, and much more.

For more information on Ooredoo’s initiatives and offers and how to benefit from them, visit www.ooredoo.om.