Israeli Breathalysers Takes One-Minute to Detect Coronavirus

An Israeli-invented one-minute breathalyser tells whether one is infected with coronavirus or not. If it gets approval from the US Food and Drug Administration, it could soon be installed at hundreds of global entry points.

The ingenious contraption uses frequency to detect deadly SARS-CoV-2. A team based at an Israeli university designed it with a success rate of more than 90 percent in trials till date.

Presently the coronavirus tests use throat or nose swabs and check particles. Professor Gabby Sarusi led the team at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev came with an out of the box idea in terms of detection.

"We asked ourselves since this virus is just like a nano-particle or a quantum dot with a diameter between 100nm to 140nm in terms of its size and electrical properties, can we detect it using methods from the worlds of physics, photonics and electrical engineering?

"We discovered that the answer is yes, this virus resonates in the THz frequency, and spectroscopy in these frequencies reveals it promptly."

Sarusi's team was working with Israel's Defence Ministry to validate the hand-held device that contains a chip with densely packed sensors. This device captures tiny particles from the breath, including viruses, if any.

The THz spectroscopy reads through the chip in around 20 seconds. Scientists observe for changes in resonance in the THz spectral range produced by the coronavirus. They can tell within a minute if someone has the virus, even if they may not indicate any symptom.

Sarusi shared that the idea was to install the breathalysers in throughout the country at places like ports, workplaces and cruise ships. Each device has the ability of processing breath from about 4,000 people per day.

The next steps are to conclude the validation process then get Food and Drug Administration approval, for which a COVID-19 fast-tracking system is there in place, the tests could be available in public as early as September.