Coronavirus Live: With so much pressure on the healthcare system, innovative methods for self-testing can not only provide relief but also help save time. ICMR recently approved a self-test kit that can give results in 15 minutes.
Researchers from the University of Florida have developed a rapid and sensitive testing method for COVID-19 biomarkers. Their sensor system provides detection within a second.
One of the authors of the study says, “This could ease slow Covid-19 testing turnaround time issues”.
Sensor strips are connected to a circuit board via a connector, and a short electrical test signal gets sent between the gold electrode bonded with Covid antibody and another auxiliary electrode. This signal is then returned to the circuit board for analysis.
While the system’s sensor strips must be discarded after use, the test circuit board is reusable. This means the cost of testing may be greatly reduced.