An American company has announced the launch of a new rapid environmental test to detect Covid-19 in the air.
Thermo Fisher Scientific, the company behind the Renvo Rapid PCR Test says that it can be performed on collected air samples and gives results in 30 minutes.
‘As the world learns to live with Covid-19 and adapts to the rapidly changing dynamics of new variants, there is a clear need for heightened surveillance and testing of indoor air quality,’ said Siqi Tan, vice president and general manager of environmental and process monitoring at Thermo Fisher.
The test has been primarily designed for environmental surveillance, rather than diagnostic purposes. So it can be used in communal locations such as schools, businesses, healthcare facilities, government buildings and other public areas to test for Covid-19 in the air.
The technology will enable Institutions to perform Covid-19 testing of air samples on-site, without the need for specialised training or sending samples to a lab for analysis.
Promising highly accurate detection of SARS-CoV-2 pathogens through indoor air sampling can produce accurate results in just 30 minutes. This is a marked improvement over the four to 24-hour testing turnaround time offered by previous models.
The faster response time could make for quick decision making and strengthening of risk mitigation strategies for communal locations and facilities.
Thermo Fisher’s overall response to Covid-19 has so far included other PCR testing solutions, virus and epidemiological research, vaccine development and lab products.