Respiratory coronavirus testing systems appeared at Singapore airport

In mid-April 2021, test systems for COVID-19 in breathing appeared at Singapore Airport, giving results on the spot almost immediately. According to the developers, this will simplify the organization of safe travel and infection control at large-scale events.

The local medical company Silver Factory Technology worked on the development of test systems in collaboration with the National Center for Infectious Diseases (NCID), Changi Airport and the security company Certis. The TracieX test system turned out to be almost as accurate as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, with only two minutes needed to obtain the results. Compared to PCR tests, the sensitivity level of a one-time test system is 95%, and the specificity is more than 99%. In addition, the new test system is cheaper and costs $26 apiece.

At Singapore Airport, breath coronavirus testing systems began to be used TracieX

According to Silver Factory, the tests have already begun, and more than 400 people have already tested at the airport.

Respiratory test systems are less invasive, more profitable and can give results in two, so if they are proven to be reliable, their use at the airport will smooth work and speed up the opening of borders, "said Albert Lim, senior vice president of passenger management at Changi Airport Group.

Silver Factory, founded in January 2020 as a subsidiary of Nanyang University of Technology, intends to produce at least 200,000 breathing test systems per month from June 2021 and could potentially increase production to 2 million systems per month.

It is expected that the cost of production will decrease after the start of large-scale production. Sensor chips will be manufactured at a new experimental plant in Tuas, while the production company Dou Yee Technologies will assemble the devices.^[1]

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