A laboratory in the United Kingdom claimed that they have developed a coronavirus test kit that can detect coronavirus in only 15 minutes.
According to Liverpool Echo, AlphaBiolabs is joining the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic armed with its finger-prick coronavirus testing kit which is "fast and accurate."
In a statement from the firm's spokesman, the test will show whether a person has been infected by the virus or not and can be performed by an individual or company health professional.
Not like other COVID-19 test kits, the boitoech firm from Warrington, Cheshire claims that their latest development can detect COVID-19 even before symptoms appear. They also said that the sample collection method is much less invasive than the widely used nasopharyngeal swab method.
Test targets workforce for widespread testing.
According to Mirror, the company is targeting organizations and companies who are looking to perform mass screening in their work forces.
According to AlphaBiolab's managing director, David Thomas, the rapid immunoassay-based finger-prick test can detect the presence of coronavirus without having to rely on the already exhausted resources of the National Health Service or without using expensive private clinics.
He further added that based on recent studies a high percentage of patients are asymptomatic, creating major operational and logistical problems for most businesses. He also stressed that companies and businesses should take this into account since there is still no predicting of how long the impact of the pandemic will be.
On top of this, he stressed that human resources of companies continue to deal with the physical and emotional concern of their staff amid this outbreak, thus, it is essential that immediate testing is done in these businesses to know if employees need to be isolated or quarantines.
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Moreover, he said that as a testing services provider they are overwhelmed by requests from customers to address the issue of testing availability. Thus, they have come up with a response to these demands by offering a fully-certificated European-registered device which can be used in both commercial premises and healthcare environment.
He also expressed his pride in being the first laboratory in the UK which is able to process tests and provide results on a massive scale. However, he also stated that as of the moment they only have limited kits available.
How does it work?
The rapid coronavirus finger-prick test kit is released by AlphaBiolabs and is being sold at £125 plus VAT.
The test entails only a few steps to perform. First, a blood sample is taken from the patient via finger prick, then the blood sample is placed into a small screening device, after which, two to three drops of testing fluid are added. After about 15 minutes, the results will be shown in the device's detection window the appearance of up to three lines.
The test works through rapid immunoassay-based screening of antibodies immunoglobulin M (IgM) and immunoglobulin G (IgG).
The finger-prick test news follows the announcement of health authorities in the UK that there are not enough tests available for widespread community testing.
