Bosch’s new, fully automated rapid test for COVID-19 can help medical facilities such as doctors’ offices, hospitals, laboratories, and health centers make fast diagnoses. The rapid molecular diagnostic test runs on the Vivalytic analysis device from Bosch Healthcare Solutions.
“We want the Bosch rapid COVID-19 test to play a part in containing the coronavirus pandemic as quickly as possible. It will speed up the identification and isolation of infected patients,” says Dr. Volkmar Denner, chairman of the board of management of Robert Bosch GmbH.
Developed in just six weeks, the rapid test can detect a SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infection in patients in under two and a half hours – measured from the time the sample is taken to the time the result arrives.
Bosch’s rapid test is one of the world’s first fully automated molecular diagnostic tests that can be used directly by all medical institutions. What’s more, it allows a single sample to be tested not just for COVID-19 but also for nine other respiratory diseases, including influenza A and B, simultaneously.
The newly developed test will be available in Germany starting in April, with other markets in Europe and elsewhere to follow.
Bosch’s rapid COVID-19 test is the result of collaboration between the company’s Bosch Healthcare Solutions subsidiary and the Northern Irish medical technology company Randox Laboratories Ltd.
In various laboratory tests with SARS-CoV-2, the Bosch test delivered results with an accuracy of over 95 percent. The rapid test meets the quality standards of the World Health Organization (WHO).