Iran’s Vice President for science and technology announced the country’s preparation for exporting the indigenously- produced coronavirus test kits to Germany and Turkey.

Speaking to IRNA on Monday, Sourena Sattari identified the devices as serologic test kits developed by Iranian science-based companies that have been granted export permits by the country’s Health Ministry. Serologic testing is used for identifying antibodies in serum.

The Islamic Republic has reached such level of self-sufficiency in producing the devices that it can now export them to most countries across the world, he said.

The novel virus that can cause a potentially fatal respiratory infection called COVID-19 has killed more than 248,300 people worldwide, including 6,200-plus in Iran. It first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.

Sattari said the Islamic Republic is now capable of conducting as many as one million diagnostic tests on people, saying all such examinations are carried out using equipment of complete domestic manufacture.

He had announced earlier that test kits developed by the country could be ready for export in the fall, when the next wave of the virus’ outbreak was expected to hit the international community.

Separately, Ali Nouri, an official with the country’s Friday Prayers Policymaking Council, said the prayers would go underway in 157 cities on the next Friday amid strict observance of relevant health protocols.

The upcoming Friday prayers will break a two-month-long hiatus that has been ordered as a precaution against further spread of the outbreak.

Nouri said the decision to hold the prayers has been made by the national task force for fighting the coronavirus.

The official added that mosques would also be reopened in as many as 132 counties countrywide, and are obligated to sternly mind special protective measures upon reopening.

Brigadier General Ramezan Sharif, spokesman for Iran’s elite Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), also announced that standing precautions were to interfere with the Quds Day rallies this year.

Millions of people attend the demonstration worldwide each year to denounce US-backed Israeli regime’s daily acts of deadly aggression against the Palestinians. The late founder of the Islamic Republic, Imam Khomeini first issued the call for the rally.

Sharif said it was “very likely” that the capital Tehran would not be able to host this year’s demonstration, but the occasion could still be honored on the national and international stage using “various other means.”

“We can draw upon the potentials that are offered by the cyberspace to honor the occasion,” he said, noting, “We should not mind what the enemy would say about the rally.”