American researchers claim to have developed a monitor that could detect the corona virus in the air in an indoor space in five minutes. The invention was made by several departments of Washington University in Saint Louis. How the system can be marketed has yet to be worked out.
The monitor is described on the university’s website as a low-cost means of continuously monitoring the air in hospitals and other healthcare facilities, schools or other public places. Determining the coronavirus is just the beginning, as you can read. The air may soon also be used to examine for other possible culprits, such as streptococci, the rhinovirus and the causative agents of the flu.
“If you’re in a room with a hundred people, you don’t want to know five days later whether you could be sick or not. The idea with this device is that you can know in real time, or every five minutes, if there is a live virus in the air,” the researchers said.
The relatively small device works with, among other things, a biosensor and a device for taking air samples.
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