Coronavirus: US scientists reveal $3 smartphone-inspired Covid-19 test

Comes as global infections pass two million

Scientists in the Pacific Northwest have revealed details of a coronavirus test that could cost as little as $3-$5 and provide a positive or negative result in a matter of minutes.

Researchers say the operating platform, already tested successfully in places such as India and Ghana, could be of particular use in the developing world and functions in low-infrastructure settings.

“We’ve built a product that is designed from the ground up to be used in low resource settings,” Patti White, the CEO of Portland-based Hemex Health, told The Independent.

“We want to have a test [that is] very accurate, but also needs to be affordable to work in a challenging environment. And it needs to be used by someone who may have minimal training, like an entry level health care worker. We’re very much focussed on that.”

The company says its diagnostic platform, called the Gazelle and which it says costs no more than a smartphone – perhaps just $750 – has already been trialled in a number of countries to identify diseases including malaria and sickle cell anaemia. Results can be immediately uploaded to Cloud technology.

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In partnership with Seattle-based PAI Life Sciences, Hemex has now developed what is says is an accurate test for the novel coronavirus.

Laboratory trials of the platform and the new Covid-19 marker are now underway. The firms hope to report on their success in a matter of months and seek regulatory approval for its use around the world.

“We are using a highly specific technology to recognise shed proteins from the virus that causes Covid-19,” said Darrick Carter, CEO of PAI Life Sciences and an affiliate professor of global health at the University of Washington.

“This unique approach should be more sensitive than antibody-based tests so it can identify even trace viral presence.”

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to reverberate around the world – on Wednesday the total number of global infections passed two million – bio-tech and pharmaceutical firms are racing to become involved in what would be a hugely lucrative market for vaccines, treatments and testing technology.

At least two-dozen companies are pushing to develop a vaccine, and Seattle is one of the cities where human trials are ongoing. Despite suggestions to the contrary from Donald Trump, experts say a safe vaccine is at least a year away.

In the meantime, health officials and physicians are trying to find treatments for the disease, and step up their testing of people, potentially as a means to open up parts of the economy.

Illinois-based Abbott Abbott Laboratories last month received federal approval for its ID NOW coronavirus test. Thousands of the $4,500 device, which like the Hemex product is about the size of half a shoe box, have been shipped to hospitals across the nation.

Displaying the device in the Rose Garden of the White House, Mr Trump said: “That’s a whole new ballgame.”