Is this the future of Covid-19 testing?

Simplified testing technique could be of particular interest to countries and regions with limited resources, writes Harry Cockburn

Bjorn Reinius, principal investigator of the study (centre) with co-first authors Ioanna Smyrlaki (right) and Anders Ekman (Stefan Zimmerman)

A team of researchers in Sweden say they have developed a new method for fast, cheap and accurate Covid-19 testing that could be rolled out quickly.

Scientists at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm said their method circumvents a complicated part of other testing methods, thereby speeding up the process, and requiring fewer expensive chemicals.

Existing tests for Covid-19 infection depend on the detection of viral RNA taken from patients by nasal or throat swabs. From these samples the RNA molecules must then be extracted and purified.