British company launches 20-second virus test

British start-up company iAbra said it had developed a 20-second saliva Covid-19 test which had 99.8 per cent sensitivity and 96.7 per cent specificity.

Trials of the "Virolens" test have taken place at Heathrow Airport, the company said on Thursday (September 10).

"Our system allows simple, high speed, reliable and low-cost testing in dynamic environments," Greg Compton, CEO of iAbra, added in a statement.

The test uses a mouth swab to extracts saliva which is analysed to identify the presence of virus. It test uses a digital camera attached to a microscope to analyse saliva samples. Each digital camera can process several hundreds of tests per day.

The Telegraph reported that each Virolens screening device can test 1,650 people per day, and that iAbra has 15,000 units in the pipeline for production.