US tech titans Amazon and Microsoft are to team up on a Seattle research project to help with the crackdown on coronavirus.
Amazon's medical care arm, Amazon Care, will deliver coronavirus testing kits to people's homes before returning to claim the samples, which will then be handed onto researchers funded by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates' foundation.
The Seattle Coronavirus Assessment Network [SCAN] - supported by the Gates Foundation - is in the process of studying the spread of the disease.
Working with samples taken from residents of Seattle's King County in Washington state - one of the worst affected areas in the US - SCAN collects nasal swabs from the testing kits in order to track the virus' reach.
The hope is that through its research, SCAN can determine how the pandemic is likely to develop by mapping how it spreads through the population.
Should any one sample return a positive diagnosis, the individual is put in touch with healthcare workers.
With the US having so far struggled to introduce widespread coronavirus testing, the collaboration could be an important first step in helping address the problem.
A spokesperson for Amazon said: “We are grateful to be surrounded by a strong community of public health, global health and academic leaders and are eager to leverage Amazon Care’s infrastructure and logistics capabilities to support this local effort."
Elsewhere, the Gates Foundation and the Impact Charity lead by Wellcome and Mastercard have pledged a $125 million fund [£107 million] to go toward developing treatments for COVID-19.
On Monday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a 33,453 jump in new cases across the country, an increase of 18,185 from its previous report.
