Coronavirus: Singapore approves 60-second breath test; Nepal says Mount Everest climbers to proceed amid pandemic

Breathonix, a spin-off company from the National University of Singapore, is now working with the health ministry to run a deployment trial

Elsewhere, Japan on Monday opened its first mass vaccination centres, while Nepal says foreign climbers will continue trying to summit Everest despite reports of virus cases at the base camp

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A staff member demonstrates the Breathonix breathalyser test kit. Photo: Reuters

Published: 12:40pm, 24 May 2021Updated: 10:12pm, 24 May 2021

Singapore authorities have provisionally approved a Covid-19 breathalyser test that aims to show whether someone is infected with the coronavirus in under a minute, according to the local start-up that developed the product.

Breathonix, a spin-off company from the National University of Singapore, said it is now working with the health ministry to run a deployment trial of the technology at one of the city state’s border points with Malaysia.

The breath analysis will be carried out alongside the current compulsory Covid-19 antigen rapid test.

The breath test achieved more than 90 per cent accuracy in a Singapore-based pilot clinical trial, the company said last year.

The Health Sciences Authority’s website confirmed the approval, which the company said was the first such system to secure provisional authorisation in Singapore.

The system uses disposable mouthpieces and is designed to ensure there is no cross-contamination. After blowing into the device, the technology assesses the chemical compounds of the breath to determine whether a person is infected.

Any individual screened as positive will need to undergo a confirmatory polymerase chain reaction Covid-19 swab test, the company said.