First it was a homemade COVID-killing spray, now Southern Highlands scientist Sophie Westlake is fighting the pandemic in a less direct manner.
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Sophie's company Virosol is currently seeking approval to import Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) to help combat a chronic shortage for a product essential to pandemic management.
RATs have been the cause of much angst in recent weeks with a widespread unavailability of the portable tests that return results for COVID within 15 minutes.
Sophie said Virosol, run from her Highlands home, hoped to begin supplying RATs over the coming months.
"We're currently working through a joint venture to bring in Rapid Antigen Tests to Australia," she told the Southern Highland News.
"We're currently getting Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) approval as we speak. We're certainly expanding our offering because a lot of clients contact us asking if we have any RATs.
"We're really excited about that new chapter. We're excited to be able to provide something that's really needed now and we're hoping over the next two months we'll be able to start supplying locally."
Her latest project follows a meteoritic rise for Virosol which was founded by by Sophie after she invented the COVID-killing disinfectant spray Virosol+ in 2020.
Chief among her reasons for taking matters into her own hands was the fact her husband Steve has a condition called Myasthenia Gravis (MG), similar to MS.
Steve required an operation that involved the removal of several lymph nodes in his chest, a process that has left him with a compromised immune system.
2020 saw him hospitalised on nine occasions, understandably putting the family on edge and motivating Sophie to come up with a solution.
It's one that has resonated with people all over the country, as Sophie explains.
"In terms of sales increase Omicron has come about, certainly in December and January we've had about a 1500 percent increase in sales," she revealed.
"Mostly in NSW and Victoria. Our main target market are mums, dads and small business owners so we get a lot of daycares, small hotels, cafes and other workplaces that want to add that extra layer of protection.
"At the end of the day we all have to start thinking about a COVID management mix.
"That mix being wearing a facemask, getting the jab, having good ventilation in workplaces, washing hands and obviously making your home safer by using products approved by the TGA to kill COVID."
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