A game-changer rapid COVID-19 testing technology being jointly developed by India and Israel should be ready for rollout in "a matter of days" and it will be able to give test results in less than a minute by simply requiring an individual to blow into a tube, the Israeli envoy to India has said.
Ambassador Ron Malka also said Israel would want India to become the manufacturing hub for this rapid testing kit and the two countries will also collaborate on vaccine development for this dreaded disease with India taking a key role in production given its "very strong relative advantage in manufacturing". He said the work on the rapid COVID-19 testing project is in a very advanced stage.
"I think it is a matter of days. What I hear from those involved in the process, it should not take more than 2-3 weeks to finalise that one reliable and accurate technology or a combination of more than one from amongst the four different technologies being analysed," Malka told PTI in an interview.
Indian and Israeli researchers have conducted trials after collecting a large number of samples in India for four different kinds of technologies, including a breath analyser and a voice test, that have the potential to detect COVID-19 rapidly.
There is also isothermal testing that enables identification of the novel coronavirus in a saliva sample and a test using poly-amino acids that seeks to isolate proteins related to COVID-19.
