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TUNIS, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Tunisian Minister of Health Abdellatif Mekki, announced on Sunday that the ministry will soon start using new rapid COVID-19 testing kits, that provide test results for patients in just 10-minutes.

"In ten days, over 500,000 new rapid COVID-19 testing kits will be available in Tunisia," Mekki told Tunisian private radio Ifm, adding that the new rapid testing kit is "of high precision and internationally certified, and will help speed up the process of testing."

"The rapid testing kits simply requires a pin prick to patient's finger so that it can take one drop of blood to search for COVID-19 antibodies," Chokri Hamouda, head of Primary Health Care Department at the Ministry of Health, told Xinhua.

On Saturday evening, Tunisian Ministry of Health announced 51 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 278.

Among these cases, there were eight deaths in six provinces.

According to figures from the Ministry of Health, the confirmed cases of COVID-19 are concentrated in Tunis, Ariana and Ben Arous, with 69, 35 and 26 cases respectively.