University of Oxford researchers have claimed they have developed a test method capable of identifying the novel coronavirus in less than five minutes, adding it could be used in mass testing at airports and businesses, reports Reuters.
Rapid antigen tests are viewed as key in rolling out mass-testing and re-opening economies while the covid-19, official name of the virus, is still circulating.
The tests already in use worldwide are faster and cheaper but less accurate than the existing molecular PCR tests.
The researchers from the British university said that the rapid device they developed is able to detect the coronavirus and distinguish it from other viruses with high accuracy.
The device is expected to go for production in early 2021 and get approval from regulatory body for public use six months afterwards.
Claiming the test would be ‘simple, extremely rapid, and cost-effective’, professor Achilles Kapanidis at Department of Physics at the university said, ‘our method quickly detects intact virus particles.’
