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While 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 could help speed up mass testing, which would allow people who need to quarantine to do so more quickly and thus slow the spread of the virus. Read on to find out how you might know if you have COVID faster than ever before, and for the telltale sign that you’re sick, check out This is the “strongest, most consistent” sign you have COVID, according to study.
In a Jan. 4 preprint of a study published via medRxiv, researchers at the University of England Birmingham announced the development of a new way to test for COVID that takes less than five minutes to detect the virus . Unlike previous COVID tests, the new test from researchers at the University of Birmingham uses only traditional laboratory equipment and does not require the administration of high heat to samples, like the PCR tests commonly used to detect the virus.
In a press release, Dafforn team, 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 in existing point-of-care devices and addresses the need for testing in… settings where people can queue for their results,” Dafforn explained.
The new test, dubbed the Exponential Amplification Reaction (EXPAR), samples single strands of DNA and its rapid results could hold promise not only in terms of mass testing, but also in terms of controlling the pandemic more quickly, according to experts. “Faster testing will allow us to unlock tests close to patients, get people back to work safely, and control outbreaks when they arise,” said Andrew Beggs, PhD, professor at the Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences at the University of Birmingham.
One of the challenges throughout the pandemic has been for states to conduct sufficient testing and get the results back to patients as quickly as possible. The positive test rate, that is, the percentage of tests that give positive results, is a key factor that indicates how a state behaves in terms of testing. “The positive percentage will be high if the number of positive tests is too high, or if the number of total tests is too low, ”says Johns Hopkins. A higher positive percentage suggests higher transmission and that there are likely more people with coronavirus in the community who have not yet been tested. “
The goal is for states to have a positive test rate of less than 5%. As of Jan. 5, according to data from Johns Hopkins, only two states met these criteria (Vermont and Hawaii). Read on to find the states with the highest positive test rates that could benefit from the rapid tests the University of Birmingham is developing. And for more on the latest coronavirus news, check out Dr Fauci just issued this warning about another new COVID strain.
Read the original article on Better life.
Positive test rate: 21.6 percent
And to find out where the new UK variant is showing up, 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 yet, check out This state now has the worst COVID outbreak in the United States.
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 region the nation’s foremost health expert has his eye on, check out Dr Fauci just said he’s worried about this state.
Positive test rate: 49.9 percent
Positive test rate: 55.1 percent
And to see how your state is doing overall, check out This state now has the worst COVID outbreak in the United States.
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