New virus test kit has results in under an hour
A testing kit that can detect the presence of the Covid-19 virus in 30-45 minutes – instantaneously compared to current lab testing, which can take 4-6 hours – is undergoing trials at Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok.
The kit was unveiled at a press conference on Wednesday (March 18) by Professor Dr Jumras Limtrakul, president of the Vidyasirimedhi Institute of Science and Technology, who was joined by the researchers involved in the project.
It was developed in cooperation with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Broad Institute and Harvard University in the US, with funding from PTT and SCB bank.
Already speedy, the kit is to be further enhanced to improve accuracy and ease of use, Jumras said.
Thailand has 10,000 kits in stock and up to 4,000 could be produced daily if the trials at Siriraj Hospital are successful.
Jumras said the kit renders a diagnosis as fast as a pregnancy test and it can be built and mass-produced entirely with materials available in Thailand for about Bt475 per unit.
He noted that the inaugural trial run at Siriraj Hospital involved an actual sample of the Covid-19 virus.
The institute is ready to hand the schematics over to the government to begin large-scale production of the kits for the public, Jumras said, and his researchers are confident they will help curb the spread of the virus.