Singapore to screen travellers from Malaysia with Covid-19 breath test

Singapore will screen incoming travellers from Malaysia at the Tuas Checkpoint on the western side of the island in a deployment trial of the breathalyzers. Anyone who tests Covid-19 positive in the breath test would be screened in a confirmatory PCR swab test.

A breath test designed to detect Covid-19 and give accurate results within a minute has been approved for use in Singapore, the National University of Singapore said in a statement.

The test, developed by NUS spin-off startup Breathonix, works much like a standard breathalyzer test that police might use to see if an erratic driver is drunk. A person blows into a one-way valve mouthpiece, and compounds in the person’s breath -- think of it as a breath signature -- are compared by machine learning software against the sort of breath signature that would be expected from someone who’s Covid-positive.

Singapore will screen incoming travelers from Malaysia at the Tuas Checkpoint on the western side of the island in a deployment trial of the breathalyzers, the Straits Times reported. Anyone who tests positive in the breath test would be screened in a confirmatory PCR swab test. Singapore currently screens entrants with antigen rapid tests, which would continue alongside the breathalyzers.

The Breathonix test has so far undergone three clinical trials, two in Singapore and another in Dubai. It achieved a sensitivity of 93% and specificity of 95% in one early Singapore-based pilot study that involved 180 patients.

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This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.