2020 has seen quite a lot but Singapore has really taken it to a new level with battling covid-19. Like all those pandemic driven films, the race to find the cure, the vaccine is mirroring our own real world experience.
Behind the glamour of the glorious crusade, is a team, thousands strong working all the odd hours to keep people from dying. Which has led to a strange equipment created by a start up company from the National University of Singapore called the Breathonix.
As its name hints at, the device is similar to a breathalyser used in our own country for testing the blood alcohol content on a Friday night (’d fail it for sure). As individuals can testify, getting the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) nasal swab isn’t a spa-like experience.
It’s currently in its testing phases but hopes to commercialise it by the end of next year and offer a quicker and less invasive method. Coming at $20 USD it may be an alternative that could see quicker run times of the whole process.
The device is designed as a tube with disposable mouth pieces in order to avoid cross contamination. Once the person blows into the tube, it assesses the chemical compounds within the person’s breath in order to determine if they have covid-19 or not. The results are generated by the computer in a matter of seconds.
The new equipment is designed as an initial screening test and would be deployed in areas where there’s a lot of traffic like stadiums and transportation hubs. Which means we may see more than just the usual alcohol breath test in the next few Christmases.
Any thoughts on that?
Bio: Sidney Boen is an energetic 1st gen Indo-Chinese Aussie with a penchant for food. She’s going into her last year in her Bachelor of Digital and social media with her eyes set on the marketing world. Loving food and travel with a voracious appetite for media and writing, she’s always out for the next interesting read. Currently working as part of the ABC News program team and a contributor to UTS Central News.
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