The trials for validating rapid test kits for Covid-19 developed in Israel reached a milestone on Tuesday with nearly 20,000 people trying them out at six locations across the city.
Commander Yaniv Meirman from Directorate of Defense Research and Development (DDRD), Israeli ministry of defence, told TOI that the results were being analysed.
The four technologies being tested include artificial intelligence to identify changes in a patient’s voice, breath analyser test that requires a patient to blow into a tube and it detects the virus using terra-hertz waves, isothermal testing that enables identification of the novel coronavirus in saliva, and another test that detects proteins of the virus collected in a saliva sample.
Meirman said except for the voice test, which they planned to try on 10,000 volunteers, the target for trials of all other tests had been almost completed. “Our aim was to test three technologies on 5,000 volunteers each, which has been nearly achieved. Trials of the voice test are likely to be completed by the weekend,” he added.
All the tests being tried under the Indo-Israel collaborative project can give results within 30 minutes. Also, the concept is such that there is no need for a laboratory set up for sample collection or processing, Meirman stated.
“Some of the tests, for example isothermal testing, can in future be done at home using a self-help kit, like a pregnancy test,” Meirman said. He added that the voice test was also simple and it could be operated using a mobile phone app.
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