If you’re an avid follower of COVID-19 developments, you may have wondered what the phrase, “PCR equipment” means. It stands for polymerase chain reaction, which is the process that labs use to check whether someone with COVID-19 symptoms has the new coronavirus, after taking a medical swab, usually from both nostrils. 

In line with World Health Organization advice to countries to test as many cases of suspected infection as possible, the race is on to find enough PCR machines for everybody. And that’s where Paul Molinaro comes in; he’s the cool, calm and collected head of logistics at the WHO, which with other UN partners is part of a major new initiative to help kit out 135 countries trying to see off the pandemic.

He’s been talking to UN News’s Daniel Johnson.