A team of scientists from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology say they have invented the fastest diagnostic testing device for the new coronavirus.
Scientists worldwide are working around the clock to find ways to treat the new virus, which currently poses the threat of a global pandemic expanding from China, where the death toll reached 636 on Friday.
“Early detection of people infected of the novel coronavirus has become an imminent challenge around the world as the epidemic continues to develop,’’ they said in a press release .
The team said that with the latest microfluidic chip technology, the device can detect the virus in just 40 minutes from sampling to testing, compared to the currently-used polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology which takes between 1.5 and three hours.(dpa/NAN)