Covid results in 30 seconds or less: Israelis test 4 new techs at RML

New Delhi: Israeli ambassador Ron Malka on Friday visited Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, where trials are being conducted on four different technologies, including a breath analyser and a voice test, that have the potential to detect Covid-19 in about 30 seconds.

According to a statement issued by the Israel embassy, Malka went there to witness the trials being conducted since the past three days for rapid Covid-19 testing.

The rapid testing is being jointly developed by Directorate of Defense Research and Development of the Israeli Ministry of Defense, India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and the principal scientific adviser, India and is being coordinated by the foreign affairs ministries of Israel and India. Malka was accompanied by professor K VijayRaghavan, the principal scientific adviser to the Prime Minister.

The tests include a voice test that uses artificial intelligence to identify changes in a patient’s voice and a breath analyser test that requires a person to blow into a tube to detect novel coronavirus using terra-hertz waves, the statement added.

There is also isothermal testing that enables identification of the virus in a saliva sample and a test using poly-amino acids that isolates proteins related to Covid-19.

“These trials are being conducted on a large sample of patients in India and if the results validate the effectiveness of the tests, they will be mass-manufactured in India and marketed to the world by Israel and India jointly,” the embassy stated.

Speaking during his visit, Malka said, “If even one of these tests is successful in detecting the virus in as less as half a minute, it will be the biggest breakthrough in Covid-19 identification that the world has been waiting for.”

He added, “By combining advanced Israeli and Indian technologies and India’s manufacturing prowess, we can find a way to resume our lives and exist alongside the virus till a vaccine is developed.”

VijayRaghavan said the translation of cutting-edge basic science and technology to society was happening in this collaboration. “What was yesterday considered esoteric research is being tested for implementation. Such robust tests are the touchstone of science,” he said.