Coronavirus swab test that costs £11 and gives accurate results in minutes could be used to screen travellers in Italy

CORONAVIRUS swab tests that cost just £11 could be used to screen travellers in Italy.

The rapid diagnostic tests give results in just 12 minutes and could be given to every passenger who enters the country.

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The swabs are manufactured in South Korea by SD Biosensor and have already been used on 1,000 people in the Italian region of Veneto.

Of those 1,000 people, the test only delivered two incorrect results.

There is no extra equipment needed for the tests and health officials in Rome hope that they will be used on tourists planning a holiday in Italy, as restrictions on travel continue to be lifted across the world.

The kits come with a substance that already contains Covid-19 antibodies.

The person being given the Standard Q Covid-19 test will be asked to use the nasal swab.

If the sample provided contains Covid particles, the antibodies already included on the test will bind them and the swab will turn red to show that the person is infected.

Other tests, such as the PCR test, require lab technicians to apply the antibodies to the swab.

This can take at least 24 hours and would be of little use to people entering the county.

Francesca Russo, who runs the region’s Covid-19 response team said the tests look reliable and hoped they could be used by Autumn in Veneto.

Veneto had been the centre of Italy’s outbreak in March.

This is while a spokesman for the Lazio region, which includes Rome, told The Times that the tests were being considered for use on every passenger arriving at Fiumicino airport.

“This test would be perfect at the airport — you could test 200 passengers getting off a plane at once.

“There is a doubt whether the test is too sensitive and signals low viral loads which are not contagious, which is why we want the Spallanzani to test it.”

Spallanzani is an infectious diseases hospital in Rome and was the first research centre in Europe to isolate the genomic sequence of Covid-19.

Like other European countries, case numbers in Italy have dwindled.

The country has had over 245,000 cases and over 35,000 deaths.

For some time now Italians have been able to travel freely across the country – a welcome move for Italians who were placed under strict lockdown measures at the start of the pandemic.

Despite the fact that confirmed cases are dropping, the country is seeing an uptick in cases from people who have entered the country.

Rome is a major tourist destination in Italy and of 13 new infected people registered on Sunday, ten had arrived from outside of the country.

Six had come from Bangladesh, two from Pakistan, one from Iraq and one from India.

Officials in Rome traced 205 cases in the Bangladeshi community to people flying in from Dhaka.

As a result Italy has suspended results from Bangladesh.

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