The only way that Singapore has been able to confirm cases of Covid-19 infections is through nasal swabs, which are uncomfortable for most people but an obligatory requirement. However, things might just be looking up.
An NUS start-up called Breathoni that was founded by Dr Jia Zhunan and Mr Du Fang has developed the technology to detect Covid-19 in just 60 seconds.
According to the University in a media release, the test requires a person to merely blow into a disposable mouthpiece connected to a high-precision breath sampler. From there, the exhaled breath is then placed into a mass spectrometer that analyses the VOC profile and generates the result in less than a minute.
In collaboration with the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID), a pilot clinical trial involving 180 patients was conducted to test the accuracy of the device.
In the end, the test achieved more than 90 per cent accuracy, so there is hope that this might be a viable option down the road in the future.