Bosch Healthcare Solutions is working on the development of a COVID-19 rapid testing kit which will launch this April 2020.

The Vivalytic VRI test (viral respiratory tract infections) checks the patient’s sample for the SARS CoV-2 virus, which can lead to COVID-19, as well as nine other possible viral respiratory diseases.

With the Vivalytic VRI test, Bosch says physicians can quickly and efficiently distinguish between different infections with very similar symptoms, like influenza, and immediately begin the appropriate treatment.

According to the company, the test delivers results based on WHO guidelines in less than 2.5 hours at the point of care, in close proximity to where the patient’s sample was collected.

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“Together with our partner Randox, we have adapted the manual COVID-19 test, which has existed just a few weeks, to the new, fully automated Vivalytic platform from Bosch,” said Marc Meier, managing director of Bosch Healthcare Solutions GmbH, in a prepared statement. “Thanks to the extensive expertise of both companies, we have succeeded in developing an innovative test in a very short time, which can contribute to curbing the global spread of the coronavirus.”

The sample is taken from the patient’s nose or throat using a swab and placed in the cartridge without any complex preparation. The Vivalytic analyser then processes the cartridge, which already contains all the reagents required for the test. Since the system in each cartridge is isolated, Bosch says the risk of infection during handling is minimized.