DAKAR, Senegal — A nonprofit biomedical research institute in Senegal that has been working on a rapid coronavirus testing kit says a number of its personnel have tested positive for the virus, including one who died.

Pasteur Institute of Dakar Assistant Director Camille Abbey said Wednesday that the cases were confirmed at different times and that none of the staff members who tested positive worked as virologists.

Measures to prevent the spread of the virus remain in place at the institute.

The research institute's director, Dr. Amadou Sall, said both staff members and scientific collaborators had tested positive.

Sall said in a statement last week that researchers and their family members “face the same life risk and reality constraints that all Senegalese people share … The virus does not spare anyone.”

He did not specify how many people affiliated with the institute. Media reports in Senegal suggested about five.

The West African nation has confirmed 3,932 cases and 45 deaths.

The Pasteur Institute of Dakar is working with biomedical company Mologic to create a rapid coronavirus test that will only cost $1. Trials are underway at an infectious disease testing facility.