Multiple posts shared thousands of times on Facebook claim that the United States has found a cure for the novel coronavirus.
The same claim has been shared here and here., A reverse image search of the picture shared with the post finds that it depicts Korean-made COVID-19 test kits and not vaccines., The earliest version of the picture that AFP found was posted on Twitter by Florian Witulski, a Bangkok-based German journalist and photographer. According to his March 21 tweet, “Korea finished developing the 10 minute Covid-19 diagnostic kit and is now ramping up production”. This report by Korean business newspaper Pulse News\xa0corroborates Witulski’s tweet., We traced the test kits to the South Korean company producing them, Sugentech. According to the company’s website, “SGTi-flex COVID-19 IgM/IgG is a gold nanoparticle-based immunochromatographic test kit for qualitative determination of COVID-19’s IgM and IgG antibodies in human whole blood (finger prick or venous), serum or plasma”., The World Health Organization (WHO) says there is no known cure or vaccine for the novel coronavirus disease. “To date, there is no vaccine and no specific antiviral medicines against COVID-19,” it says in its public advisory., The agency adds that “possible vaccines and some specific drug treatments are currently under investigation. They are being tested through clinical trials”., On April 28, the WHO also gave an update on the state of vaccine prioritisation for COVID-19, stating clearly that any possible vaccine is still in the works., , Copyright © AFP 2017-2020.  All rights reserved.  Users can access and consult this website and use the share features available for personal, private, and non-commercial purposes.  Any other use, in particular any reproduction, communication to the public or distribution of the content of this website, in whole or in part, for any other purpose and/or by any other means, without a specific licence agreement signed with AFP, is strictly prohibited.  The subject matter depicted or included via links within the Fact Checking content is provided to the extent necessary for correct understanding of the verification of the information concerned.  AFP has not obtained any rights from the authors or copyright owners of this third party content and shall incur no liability in this regard.  AFP and its logo are registered trademarks.
These are test kits made in South Korea, not a 'cure' for COVID-19 | AFP Fact Check