Scientists have developed a new kind of Covid test which can detect the virus in spit - and tell infected people which variant they caught. The $6 (£4.30) test called Minimally Instrumented SHERLOCK (miSHERLOCK) can distinguish between three types of the virus and takes one hour to provide results. Scientists have developed a new kind of Covid test that can detect the virus in people's spit. The device works using CRISPR technology — a controversial gene editing tool that has been used to detect HPV, a virus that causes several types of cancer — to detect Covid in the saliva. Researchers tested their diagnostic device using clinical saliva samples from 27 Covid patients and 21 healthy patients.

Source: Daily Mail August 06, 2021 18:00 UTC