S’pore’s Self-Developed Swab Test Detects Covid-19 Positive Traveller Immediately Upon Arrival

COVID-19 is pretty much all that we can think about now that the numbers are not just rising overseas, but in Singapore as well.

In Singapore, our government ramped up their R&D in a race against Covid-19 and recently launched a new swap test at our checkpoints.

The reason?

We might be handling our internal cases very well but if we can’t catch them at the checkpoints? Our imported cases are going to increase drastically.

Dire Consequences For Those Who Refuse Test

The Ministry of Health (MOH) also announced that if Singapore permanent residents and long-term pass holders refuse to take the test, their immigration facilities and work pass privileges may either be revoked or the validity shortened.

All Singaporeans and visitors will have to comply with the testing. Those who do not do so or who cannot be contacted afterwards may be subjected to punishments and even be prosecuted under the Infectious Disease Act.

But then again, how do we know if this swab test can really detect Covid-19?

Well, read this:

New Swab Test Successfully Detected COVID-19 Patient

On Saturday, 7 March, the test kit successfully detected COVID-19 in an Indonesian man who arrived at Seletar Airport.

The 64-year-old Indonesian man is now known as Singapore’s Case 147, and he reported having a few symptoms on 3 March.

He then had a fever when he arrived at Seletar Airport on Saturday and was asked to undergo the COVID-19 swab test.

After testing positive through the test kit, he was brought to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) and warded in an isolation room there later that night.

Before he was hospitalised, he mostly stayed in his rental apartment located in the Oxley Road area.

His time of arrival at the Seletar Airport and the duration between his arrival and his transfer to NCID were, however, not reported.

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Our Very Own Locally-Developed Test Kit

In an attempt to curb the spread of the COVID-19 infection, authorities rolled out our very own Singapore-developed COVID-19 test kit.

Visitors will first have to take a COVID-19 nasal swab test, and the samples will then be analysed by the test kit that was developed by the Home Team Science and Technology Agency (HTX) and Veredus Laboratories.

According to Manpower Minister and Second Minister for Home Affairs Josephine Teo in a Facebook post, the test kit “has an accuracy rate of more than 99 per cent and is able to test for a result in three hours”.

She said, “I’m glad that this innovation from our scientists at HTX can play a part in limiting the spread of imported cases in our ongoing battle with COVID-19.”

It is amazing that HTX and Veredus Laboratories were able to use technology to develop a test kit to help in this critical period.

To all the scientists who have worked so hard in developing this, thank you for your service.