Meet the Pakistani man behind '5-minute COVID-19 testing kit'.

A Pakistani origin scientist is reportedly the brains behind the development of a portable test that can tell if someone has COVID-19 in as little as five minutes.

Abbott Laboratories said the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had given it emergency authorisation to begin making the test available to healthcare providers as early as next week.

The test, which is the size of a small toaster and uses molecular technology, also shows negative results within 13 minutes, the company said in a statement.

According to the media reports, the device was invented by Jameel Sheikh, a Pakistani scientist hailing from Sindh's Larkana district who graduated from Karachi's NED Engineering University before moving to the United States.

The pharmaceutical giant in its statement said that they are ramping up production to deliver 50,000 COVID-19 tests per day by next month for the US healthcare system.

'Testing remains a crucial step in controlling the novel COVID-19 pandemic. Continuing to supply healthcare providers with new technologies to help curb the spread of...