(CNN) UK-based laboratory Mologic is working with scientists in Senegal to make a diagnostic test for coronavirus that can produce test results within 10 minutes, the company said.

The handheld device is the first diagnostic kit developed in the UK to be jointly-manufactured in Africa, according to Mologic in a statement announcing the UK-funded initiative.

The laboratory said it was working with the Pasteur Institute in Dakar and five other international research organizations to authenticate the test kits that will be produced by DiaTropix, a manufacturing facility also in the West African nation.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited the lab last week and announced a £46 million fund (approximately $58 million US dolllars) for British experts to find vaccines and develop test kits to fight the coronavirus pandemic and prevent future outbreaks of the virus.

Boris Johnson visits the Mologic Laboratory on March.

Mologic said it received a £1 million (about $1.3 million USD) from the fund to make a rapid test kit that works without electricity and does not need a laboratory analysis to give results for coronavirus, paving the way for health workers to detect cases and place people under quarantine quickly.

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