Scientists in S’pore Developed COVID-19 Test Kits That Cut Testing Time By Half

Do you know that there are two types of COVID-19 tests? You would know about it if you’ve downloaded our app.

You can read about the two types of tests here, but here’s the main idea: one test (PCR test) is more expensive and takes longer to confirm, while the other (antibody test) is less expensive and it’s much faster.

However, an antibody test is only accurate if it’s an old infection, or it’s been at least 14 days since you’re infected.

A PCR test is therefore preferred to find active infections. It’s also the one that you’ve read a lot about—the renowned “swabs”.

But PCR test isn’t about taking a sample from your nose and merely looking at the colour to determine if you’re infected.

PCR Test Simplified for You

If you’ve seven minutes to spare, watch this video and it’ll give you a better idea of how much effort is needed to do one test:

If not, here’s a brief idea: a sample is taken from within your nose and taken to a lab. Over in the lab, the samples need to be processed first—kind of like “seasoning” the samples before a high-tech machine…do something to check if the sample has any trace of the coronavirus.

In total, it’ll take about three hours for the results to be out.

Now you know why a test takes up to $200—it’s not like a pregnancy kit.

But Singapore is now in the world map again with a new test kit that can cut down the testing time by half.

DSO and A*Star New Test Kit

Developed jointly by scientists from the DSO National Laboratories and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star), this new test kit can reduce the testing time by half.

It’s not a new machine, but a specially formulated pre-mixed solution. Remember the “seasoning” mentioned earlier? Just think of it as a pre-made seasoning lah. Cooking with a premade sauce is always so much faster than making your own sauce, right?

Reader Bao: But it tastes better with our own—

Taste doesn’t matter here, and the resources saved could mean that we can test even more people here in Singapore. Ms Ng Sock Hoon, director of the verification and attribution laboratory at DSO, said, “The cost savings come from the manpower and resources required from RNA extraction. This reduces material and manpower costs, as well as time.”

The kit, which is called Resolute because they’re named by scientists and not non-essential workers, has already received provisional authorisation from the Health Sciences Authority in April, and they’re now working with a local medtech company to produce and deploy it.

Singapore is now working to ramp up its testing capacity, and aim to, by the later part of this year, conduct 40,000 tests a day.

In the meantime, you can help stop the transmission of the virus by downloading the TraceTogether app. If you’re still worried about privacy, you might want to watch this video: