UAE reports highest daily coronavirus cases at 1,181

Researchers from Khalifa University have developed a portable COVID-19 testing kit, which is larger than an average smartphone. (WAM)

• Health authority has been expanding coronavirus testing nationwide
• Researchers from Khalifa University develop a portable COVID-19 testing kit

DUBAI: The UAE has reported its highest daily number of coronavirus cases, with 1,181 new infections in the last 24 hours.
The country has seen 96,529 people with the disease – although 86,071 of them have already been declared free of the virus, while 424 people have died so far, state news agency WAM reported.
Health authority has been expanding coronavirus testing nationwide as a preventive protocol by detecting cases early to ensure the prompt isolation and treatment of patients. More than 107,000 COVID-19 tests were conducted overnight.
The UAE’s COVID-19 screening capacity meanwhile is expected to get a boost after a team of researchers from Khalifa University developed a portable COVID-19 testing kit.
The new kit is both portable and can deliver the results in 45 minutes, the report added.
While Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing is always highly accurate – and the gold standard for detecting viruses – it can be complex to use, the report noted, so researchers used the Loop-mediated Isothermal Amplification method, or LAMP, to provide a rapid, sensitive, and specific detection of the coronavirus.
“It is faster than the conventional PCR method and uses primers that target two specific regions of the viral RNA… As complicated as this sounds, it’s all completed within the device and needs minimal knowledge to operate,” WAM said.
The testing kit is currently in the clinical validation stage.