Testing for viruses? A breathalyser can do the job, finds Bill Gates.

Ahead of the colder months and festive gatherings, a breathalyser may be changing the way that public authorities test for COVID-19. Microsoft founder and billionaire Bill Gates shared a tweet about the innovative new product from Imec, an R&D and innovation company.

“Testing for viruses with a breathalyzer? It’s possible. Pretty incredible to see the innovative work happening at Imec,” shared Gates on Twitter.

 

Since the start of the pandemic over two years ago, scientists and public health officials have been searching for faster ways of identifying infections. Faster identification is one of the ways to prevent smaller clusters of infections from turning into larger waves of infection. A breathalyser test could allow for multiple tests to be done while still delivering quick results. According to Imec’s website, the breathalyser gives results as accurate as other nasopharyngeal RT-PCR tests within 18 minutes. The test is also able to give accurate results even when patients are pre-symptomatic.