The new technology has been tested at the Winter Olympics, currently taking place in Beijing, as part of measures to contain the spread of the disease during this planetary competition.
The measures taken on the occasion of the Winter Olympics, in particular the disinfection of the installations and the tests carried out with the participants, have prompted scientists to think about an innovative way to test the air, indicates Liu Peng, researcher at the School. of Medicine from Tsinghua University and a member of the research team that developed the new system. The latter is able to provide early warnings about the presence of the virus, he adds.
Although Covid-19 is mainly spread via respiratory droplets released when a person coughs, researchers have found that the virus can also be transmitted by aerosol particles that linger in the air, especially in closed environments. , continues the researcher. The new device consists of a portable collector designed to suck in ambient air and shake off aerosol droplets made up of fine particles that can carry the new coronavirus, mix with air and be inhaled.
After disinfection, the collected gas is transformed into a fluid and tested via a nucleic acid detector.
The detector is 10 times more sensitive than ordinary nucleic acid testing tools, according to the research team, made up of scientists from Tsinghua University, Peking University and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.
“The machine has extremely high sensitivity, allowing even samples with low viral loads to be detected,” Liu said, adding that the entire testing process, from collecting air samples to reporting results to disease control authorities, takes less than four hours.
Before going live, the system was tested at five venues during the Winter Olympics and at the Beijing 2022 Press Center.
The system will likely be used in hospitals, train stations and airports in the future, according to its designers.
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