In another major development apropos of the coronavirus, four technologies developed by scientists from Israel are being tested at Delhi’s Dr Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital, which potentially detects the infection within 30 seconds.
For the same, over 10,000 people will be tested twice, once using the standard molecular RT-PCR test and then the four Israeli technologies to evaluate their efficacy.
If the technologies yield successful results, it could help people to co-exist with the virus until a vaccine is developed, and can help revive the economy faster.
The Israeli Defence R&D, India’s Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO), and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) have come together for this project, The Hindustan Times quoted Principal Scientific Adviser to PM Narendra Modi, Professor K Vijay Raghavan as saying.
Describing the first of the three technologies, Raghavan said the first one uses the Terahertz Spectroscopy, where a sample is taken, deposited on a chip and then examined in a manner that specifically detects SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 and produces a result in less than a minute.
The second one is an Isothermal test that increased the genetic material of the virus rapidly, while the third approach detects the poly-amino acids specific to coronavirus.
Speaking about the fourth approach, Raghavan said, ‘the process includes the study of speech samples from asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic patients, and compare them with others, to observe if the tools of artificial intelligence can be used to identify those who are COVID-19 positive.’
He revealed that technologies have shown some significant results in the lab, but the challenge now remains as to how they would help in fieldwork setting.
In a visit to the RML hospital on Friday with Prof Raghavan, Israel Ambassador to India Ron Malka said if any of the technologies succeed in providing the accurate results, it will prove to be the world’s biggest breakthrough.
