Trump seeks S.Korea's help for medical equipment to tackle coronavirus (updated)

Sugentech

25/03/2020 02:14

(Recasts and adds surge in S.Korean test kit maker shares)
    By Joori Roh
    SEOUL, March 25 (Reuters) - South Korea said it will send
medical equipment to the United States to fight the coronavirus
if it has any spare after an urgent request from U.S. President
Donald Trump in which he promised to help Korean firms gain U.S.
government approval.
    The news, which sent shares in South Korean manufacturers of
test kits for the virus rocketing higher, highlights the
diverging paths the two countries have taken since both
discovered their first coronavirus cases on the same day.
    After a big early outbreak, South Korea rolled out
widespread testing within days, swiftly launching an aggressive
programme to isolate confirmed cases and trace their contacts.
    It won praise for slowing the spread of the disease with
comparatively little disruption and just 125 deaths, and has
brought the number of new infections per day to below 100 for
the past 13 straight days.
    The United States did little testing initially, and has been
shutting parts of the country en masse, with fast-growing
outbreaks in a number of states and thousands of new cases per
day.
    In a 23 minute phone call, Trump told President Moon Jae-in
he would help Korean producers obtain approval from the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for their equipment, South
Korea's Blue House office said in a statement late on Tuesday.
    Moon told Trump that South Korea "will provide as much
support as possible, if there is spare medical equipment in
Korea".
    Shares of test kit manufacturer Seegene Inc  096530.KQ 
jumped as much as 27% while SugenTech Inc  253840.KQ  climbed as
much as 23% compared to a 4.5% rise for the benchmark KOSPI
index.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2BI09W

 (Reporting by Joori Roh; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by
Edwina Gibbs)
 ((joori.roh@thomsonreuters.com; +82 2 6936 1493;))