More than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us are fed up with nasal PCR tests. Fortunately, regulators are now approving alternatives that don’t involve torturing our nostrils.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has just issued an emergency use authorisation for the country’s first COVID-19 breath test, which can provide results in less than three minutes.
The FDA described the InspectIR COVID-19 Breathalyzer as “the first COVID-19 diagnostic test that detects chemical compounds in breath samples associated with a SARS-CoV-2 infection”.
It uses a technique called gas chromatography gas mass-spectrometry (GC-MS) to separate and identify chemical mixtures and rapidly detect five volatile organic compounds (VOCs) associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection in exhaled breath.
The FDA said the device was 91.2 per cent accurate at identifying positive test samples and 99.3 per cent accurate at identifying negative test samples.
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No more PCR nose swabs? FDA approves first COVID breath test in US
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Source - EuroNews
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