Israel's rapid test tech to diagnose Covid-19 could help India in Unlock 3.0

Six months after the World Health Organisation declared a global emergency, the novel coronavirus has infected more than 1.6 million infections in India. With overall tally at over 16 lakh, India is now headed towards Unlock 3.0.

But going back to the "new normal" will require testing technology of the kind that could track the virus so that economies can function like before again.

A team of top Israeli scientists have arrived in India for final stages of testing of four advanced technologies for real time rapid diagnosis of the coronavirus.

These technologies, once proven successful, could be used at airports, malls or other premises. This will allow the economy to get back on its feet.

Speaking to India Today, Israel's Ambassador to India Ron Malka said, “India and Israel scientific collaboration has been going on for many years. Since, the outbreak of the pandemic we are finding solutions while assisting each other to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. Our best researchers are focussed on finding rapid tests for Covid-19.”

Israel's Ministry Of Defence, accompanied by experts from the Union Ministry of Health, are working in collaboration with DRDO India and Dr K Vijay Raghavan, principal scientific advisor for Indian PMO.

“We have found four technologies which could be the promising to give us the most reliable rapid test to show real-time results within few seconds. We are in very advanced stage of this research and we hope this works out. It would be a game-changer. It will change dramatically the way that we live under this pandemic until we find a way to live under this population," he said.

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Real time rapid test results:

The Ambassador explained the main idea behind real time testing.
"The main idea is to find the fingerprint of Covid-19 in different technologies. There are four tests we are working on. One is through audio, where a person could speak and we try to find the fingerprint of the virus by analysing the voice. We are using cutting edge, artificial intelligence and big data analysis to analyse the voice," he told India Today.

The Ambassador says the second is the use of high frequency (terra hertz). We just project the frequency on the sample given from the patient to identify if the person had Covid-19 or not.

Third type is thermal tests mapped through changes in body temperature. The fourth type is being done using Polyamino acids where the test will locate specific proteins related to Covid-19.

"These tests are made locally so at the end of the day, we could have either more than one or a combination of two of the most reliable technologies on testing for Covid-19,” said Israel's envoy.

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The Israel-India Covid-19 mission

In the mission, Israel government has also brought some cutting-edge medical equipment, such as medical robots, to minimise the exposure of the medical staff to patients of Covid-19.

These maybe placed at AIIMS New Delhi.

This has been done amid an export ban in Israel. “There is an export ban in Israel since we are also fighting Covid-19, the second wave of this pandemic. We got a special waiver for India and got 83 advanced respirators on this flight,” said Ron Malka.

He added, "We are learning to live with the infection and flatten the curve while letting the economy work."

“The tests have already begun in New Delhi India and we are working very fast. We have harnessed all our resources and are working with India. Within few weeks we will have the results,” he added.

Israel also thanked India for assistance it received in the time of crisis.

“We say good friendship reflects and improves itself in times of crisis. Since the pandemic we got a lot of assistance from our friend, India. All the authorities helped us to evacuate 1,000 of Israelis stranded all over India. When we needed medicine and raw materials they provided us. Now, we are sharing all our technological gifts,” the ambassador added.

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