India and Israel joined hands to develop a 30-second Coronavirus detection test in July and as per the recent update from the Israeli Ambassador to India, Ron Malka, the testing kit—which is a result of an operation called "Open Skies"—should be ready in "a matter of days," as all the thresholds have been passed.
This unique and affordable technology is expected to help the world to identify Coronavirus patients faster as the system only requires a person to blow into a tube and within less than a minute the result will be out. The results can be delivered locally without using logistics and there will be no need to send the samples to labs and then wait for a few days for the report.
Good News for the World
While talking about the recently developed rapid-test kit, Malka said that India would likely be its manufacturing headquarters. In July this year, the Middle East country sent a senior-level delegation from Israel's Directorate of Defense Research and Development to India to develop the rapid novel Coronavirus tests.
While working with their Indian counterparts, the group focused on four technologies which are:
- Sound waves
- Breathalyzers based on terahertz waves
- Isothermic identification
- Checking polyamino acids
The group of developers then conducted the tests on a large number of samples in India, which has the second-highest novel Coronavirus infection cases—as of Sunday, October 11, over 7,053,000 COVID-19 cases, and more than 108,000 deaths due to the virus infection. Malka said that each test has undergone different stages of evaluation.
As reported, he said people who are involved in the rapid test kit development process told him that it should not take over three weeks to finalize one accurate, as well as most reliable technology "or a combination of more than one from among the four different technologies being analyzed." According to him, this new test kit is an example of how fruitful collaboration of science and technology between both countries can be.
Faster Test Kits Should Help the World
A team of researchers in India recently developed a paper-based, inexpensive, test for the SARS-CoV-2. The test kit, which is named after India's famous fictional detective character—'Feluda' COVID-19 test—could give fast results similar to a pregnancy test. The researchers estimate that the test kit would provide results within an hour and the cost would be $6.75.
However, a Chinese company called Coyote claimed that its Coronavirus testing machine can provide results faster than any other labs and it is most reliable than any other home-screening kit. As per the founder of the company Sabrina Li, Flash 20 is currently the fastest machine available in the world for PCR tests in terms of detecting novel Coronavirus. While the machine has been already certified by the European Union and Australia, Coyote is seeking similar status from the US as well as from the World Health Organization.
In late September, Health Canada—the department of the Government of Canada—showed green light to the rapid SARS-CoV-2 infection test that can detect the disease in as little as 13 minutes. An infection control epidemiologist, Colin Furness, who also serves as an assistant professor at the University of Toronto, said these types of rapid tests will help the world a lot as the healthcare experts will be able to reach "more people and do more tests."
