A British health technology firm, Mologic, has developed a device that would allow people to conduct Coronavirus tests at their homes inside 10 minutes at a cost of $1.
As per details, Mologic is now sending the device’s prototypes to renowned laboratories across the world for validation so the firm can shift focus towards mass production.
The device uses an antibody test to establish whether a person has previously been infected by the Coronavirus and is now immune, compared to an antigen test which tells whether a person has COVID-19 and needs medical attention.
Mologic had tested its cheap COVID-19 diagnostic device at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and St Georges hospital earlier this week.
Medical Director at Mologic, Joe Fitchett, said:
Many companies were working on virus diagnostics, Mologic’s aim was to create cheap, widely available tests. The device should be made available to the vulnerable and most precious in society, in the UK and all over the world.
England’s Chief Medical Officer, Chris Whitty, has questioned the accuracy of the device saying inaccurate tests would be devastating during the pandemic.
The technology is quite close, and it’s being evaluated this week, but it’s not there. The one thing that’s worse than no test is a bad test. I do not think that this is something we’ll suddenly be ordering on the internet next week.
Via: Reuters
This test can only detect whether you were PREVIOUSLY infected and recovered. It cannot detect if you are infected the first time. Antibodies test cannot detect first infection.