Regulators in the US have granted emergency use authorization for a test that detects SARS-CoV-2 from someone's breath, as 360Dx reports.
It adds that the test, InspectIR COVID-19 Breathalyzer test from InspectIR Systems, uses gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to detect compounds associated with COVID-19 from within individuals' breath. According to USA Today, people taking the test blow into a tube like they are blowing up a balloon. Bloomberg adds that the company has largely focused on portable tools to detect cannabis and opioids.
The test, 360Dx notes, had 91.2 percent sensitivity and 99.3 percent specificity, could be used in doctors' offices, hospitals, and mobile testing sites, and is the size of carry-on luggage. The Week adds that test results can be returned in less than three minutes.
"Today's authorization is yet another example of the rapid innovation occurring with diagnostic tests for COVID-19," Jeff Shuren, director of the Center for Devices and Radiological Health at the US Food and Drug Administration, says in a statement.