Chinese scientists claim their new technology will detect Covid in just 4 minutes

Chinese scientists have claimed that they have developed a new Covid-19 test which will give results as accurate as a RT-PCR lab test. And the best part is that it will give results within four minutes. Researchers from Fudan University in Shanghai have made this claim.

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests are widely considered the most accurate and sensitive for detecting the virus that causes Covid-19, but they usually take several hours. During the surge of the highly transmissible Omicron variant, many labs were unable to keep up with heavy testing demand, resulting in long delays.

The peer-reviewed article was published on Monday in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering. The researchers said their method offers speed, ease of operation, high sensitivity and portability. Their trial involved taking samples from 33 people in Shanghai who were infected with Covid-19 infection, with PCR tests conducted in parallel.

China is one of the world's biggest makers of coronavirus test kits. According to customs data, it exported USD 1.6 billion worth of test kits in December, a 144% increase from the previous month.

How the new technology works

Samples were taken from 33 people infected with Covid and 54 samples from those who were not infected.

They implanted an electromechanical biosensor in an integrated and portable prototype device.

The biosensor used microelectronics to analyse genetic material from swabs for SARS-CoV-2 detection.

Researchers claim the new method detected (virus RNA) in less than four minutes time.

This reduces the need for time-consuming Polymerase chain reaction tests conducted in labs.

The researchers said their method offers speed, ease of operation, high sensitivity and portability.

The researchers said the results from their method were a perfect match with the PCR tests.

They say the technology could be applied to test for other types of infections as well.