Russia has developed a test that detects COVID-19 in an hour
The Epidemiology Institute of Rospotrebnadzor has developed a test for COVID-19, which allows detecting the virus in 60-90 minutes, Institute Director Vasily Akimkin said at a meeting with Tatiana Golikova, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation. “Our institute jointly with specialists from other institutes have practically developed and tested a test based on loop-mediated isothermal amplification, which allows reducing the examination time by three to four times, it is not inferior to classical PCR in terms of sensitivity and specificity, and has been tested by our institutes with a positive assessment”. He also added that in the near future a test system to identify the “British” strain of COVID-19 will be sent for registration. Akimkin explained that Russian specialists prepared a “set of primers and probes” within the shortest period of time during the New Year’s holidays. “This virus is characterized primarily by the fact that, according to publications, it is more contagious and has a higher viral load. Yesterday we received a real positive response on the RNA of a real virus, which allows us to detect a virus with a British mutation and without a mutation”, he concluded.
Mikhail EREMIN
