Although millions of COVID tests have been administered in the United States and beyond, a new diagnostic tool promises to deliver results faster than any existing test. According to the researchers, this new tool can help speed up mass testing, making it easier for people who need to be quarantined to do it in a timely manner and thus slow the spread of the virus. Read on to find out how you can find out if you have COVID faster than ever, and to see the telltale sign that you are sick, check out This is the “strongest and most consistent” sign that you have COVID, says Study.
In a January 4 preprint of a study published by medRxiv, researchers at the University of Birmingham in England announced the development of a new test medium for COVID that takes less than five minutes to detect the virus. Unlike previous COVID tests, the new test by researchers at the University of Birmingham uses only traditional laboratory equipment and does not require high temperature administration to samples, such as the PCR tests commonly used to detect the virus.
In a press release, Tim Dafforn, PhD, a professor at the School of Biosciences at the University of Birmingham, said the new test has “the inherent sensitivity of an RNA test”, but with significantly faster results. The new test “can be used on existing point of care devices and meets the need for testing in … environments where people may be waiting in line for their results,” explained Dafforn.
The new test, dubbed the Exponential Amplification Reaction (EXPAR), samples of single strands of DNA and their rapid results could be promising in terms of not only mass testing, but also of controlling the pandemic more quickly, experts say. “Faster testing will allow us to unlock tests on nearby patients, getting people back to work safely and controlling outbreaks when they happen,” he said. Andrew Beggs, PhD, professor at the Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences at the University of Birmingham.
One of the struggles during the pandemic has been the states doing enough tests and getting the results back to patients as soon as possible. A key factor that indicates how well a state is doing in terms of testing is the positive test rate, that is, the percentage of tests that generate positive results. “The positive percentage will be high if the number of positive tests is too high, or if the number of total tests it is very low, “explains Johns Hopkins.” A higher percentage of positive suggests a higher transmission and that there are probably more people with coronavirus in the community who have not yet been tested. “
The goal is for states to have a positive test rate below 5%. On January 5, according to Johns Hopkins data, only two states met these criteria (Vermont and Hawaii). Read on to discover the states with the highest positive test rates that could benefit from the rapid test that the University of Birmingham is developing. And for more information on the latest news about the coronavirus, consult Dr. Fauci who has just published this notice about another new COVID strain.
Read the original article at Better life.
Positive test rate: 21.6 percent
And to find out where the new UK variant is coming from, check out The new COVID strain is now in these 5 states.
Positive test rate: 24.1 percent
Positive test rate: 24.6 percent
And for the area with the worst COVID scenario at the moment, check out This state now has the worst COVID outbreak in the U.S.
Positive test rate: 25.3 percent
Positive test rate: 39.8 percent
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Positive test rate: 40.5 percent
Positive test rate: 42.1 percent
Positive test rate: 46.3 percent
And for the area that the greatest health specialist in the country is looking at, take a look at Dr. Fauci Just Said He is concerned about this state.
Positive test rate: 49.9 percent
Positive test rate: 55.1 percent
And to see how your state is performing overall, see This state now has the worst COVID outbreak in the U.S.