New kits to detect coronavirus infection faster

Leading universities and research organs have developed faster detection kits for the 2019-nCov nucleic acid for the ongoing campaign to fight against novel coronavirus in China.

On Sunday, Tianjin University announced that a detection kit has been successfully developed by the university and the GenMag Biotechnology Co Ltd, which can detect suspected novel coronavirus cases in its earlier incubation period and detect within one hour whether it is the novel coronavirus, which significantly reduces detection time from the previous three hours.

The detection kit is matched with GenMag's automated nucleic acid extraction instruments, nucleic acid extraction reagents, magnetic beads and other consumables to provide a coordinated solution for the rapid detection of the novel coronavirus. 

The university also is launching research on the rapid screening of fecal samples and asymptomatic patients in their incubation period. 

It expects more clinical tests could prove the effectiveness of the new detection kit and see mass production as soon as possible.

Late last month, Jiangsu Qitian Bio teamed up with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention to develop a detection kit that could complete the test and show results within 15 minutes, significantly faster and shortening the previous 3-hour test period.

The Bank of Jiangsu announced it was giving the company a 2 million yuan ($284,802) loan to procure raw materials to launch mass production following the announcement.

Chongqing University announced on Thursday that it developed a detection kit that could help complete the test in one hour.

The kit's device could help detect 96 samples simultaneously and each device could detect a maximum of 1,000 samples within 12 hours, the university said.

As the novel coronavirus has a long incubation period and is infectious even during the incubation period, a detection kit with high sensitivity is urgently needed in China. In addition, the rising number of suspect cases require mass and faster production of the detection kits.

Statistics indicated that by midnight Sunday, confirmed cases of viral pneumonia hit 17,205 in China and suspected cases hit 21,558.