Third Covid rapid test proves reliable; Breath test tried in Amsterdam

The GGD test center in Amsterdam is experimenting with a breathalyzer test for the coronavirus developed by Leiden company Breathomix. The test can quickly determine that someone doesn't have Covid-19. A rapid test developed by TNO for the Ministry of Public Health also proved to be just as accurate as the commonly used PCR tests.

The Breathomix breathalyzer test detects particles that people exhale. Over the past weeks more than 1,800 people were tested with the device at GGD Amsterdam's test center, NOS reports. About 1,350 of then got a definite negative result. The test takes about 45 seconds - 30 seconds of blowing into the device, and a few seconds for the results.

The device was able to rule out a coronavirus infection with certainty in about 75 percent of cases, according to research by GGD Amsterdam, the Franciscus Gasthuis & Vlietland and the Leiden University Medical Center. The other quarter of test subjects' results were uncertain, and they were sent in for a cotton swab test.

According go the researchers, the large-scale application of this device can take a lot of pressure off the test centers, by sending negative people home without them having to undergo a swab test. They can then immediately go back to school or work. The Ministry of Health ordered a few hundred such devices from Breathomix.

An experiment with a rapid test developed by TNO also proved that this so-called LAMP test is just as accurate as the commonly used PCR tests, ANP reports. The LAMP test was tested at the GGD in Amsterdam, with the nearly 900 participants giving samples for both the LAMP and PCR tests so that the results could be compared. The results corresponded in 99 percent of the cases.

Where a PCR test takes 24 to 48 hours, the LAMP test gives results within 45 minutes to an hour. TNO will present the results of the practical trial to Minister Hugo de Jonge of Public Health on Thursday.

The Dutch health authorities already approved two other rapid tests last week. These tests were developed by United States companies BD and Abbott.