Coronavirus infections could be diagnosed by coughing into an app.
The ResApp technology, which has been developed by experts in Australia, was found to correctly detect COVID-19 in 92 per cent of people with the virus during tests and it means that swab tests could soon be a thing of the past.
The US pharmaceutical company Pfizer has offered to buy ResApp for £57 million as they look to introduce the app across the world.
Professor Catherine Bennett, a member of ResApp’s COVID-19 Scientific Advisory Board, said: “The sheer scale of this global pandemic and the likely evolution to an endemic disease means we need more scalable diagnostic tools that can balance our current over-reliance on rapid antigen and PCR tests.
“By rapidly ruling out COVID-19, ResApp’s COVID-19 test would significantly reduce the number of rapid antigen and PCR tests required, while still maintaining the disease surveillance needed to manage the continued impact of COVID-19.”
