UK to release new 90-minute tests that can detect coronavirus and flu

The United Kingdom plans to release two new coronavirus tests kits to hospitals, care homes and laboratories across the country. As per reports, these new types of tests can detect the deadly coronavirus in just 90 minutes and is aimed at greatly aiding UK’s testing capacity and help medical professionals quickly distinguish between COVID-19 and the winter Flu.

Greatly enhancing UK's testing capabilities

According to reports, one of the two new 90 minute tests will be provided by Oxford Nanopore, an Oxford University spin-off co-founded by Indian-origin CEO Gordon Sanghera. The CEO in a statement has claimed that his company’s test provides for a "accessible global testing solution".

Sanghera also added that his company was “honoured to be playing a part in fighting Covid-19 in the UK, and preparing the country for the winter virus season. Ever since we founded Oxford Nanopore, our mission has been to create disruptive, high-performance technology that has a profound, positive impact on society”.

The test kit that is k own as LamPORE swab tests will be available from next week and almost 450,000 units are ready to be shipped out to clinics across Britain. UK's Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has stated that the new LamPORE swab tests have the same sensitivity as the widely used PCR swab test.

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The other rapid new test that will further enhance UK’s testing capacity uses DNA to detect the virus and will be supplied by DnaNudge, who will also be providing 5,000 DNA machines to NHS hospitals from September.

Regius Professor Chris Toumazou FRS, CEO and co-founder of DnaNudge and founder of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at Imperial College London has stated that “The DnaNudge team worked with incredible speed and skill during the peak of the pandemic to deliver this highly accurate, rapid Covid-19 test, which requires absolutely no laboratory or pipettes and can be deployed anywhere with a direct sample-to-result in around just over an hour”.

The deadly coronavirus which began in an illegal wet market in Wuhan, China last year has quickly spread all over the world, the virus named COVID-19 by the World Health Organisation has infected 18,080,067 people worldwide and the global death toll stands at 689,370. The UK has reported 306,319 positive coronavirus cases as per the John Hopkins coronavirus resource centre and has a death toll of 46,286.

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(Input Credit: PTI)