America's recurring problem during the coronavirus pandemic has been not executing enough tests to tame its spread.
In its third year, the U.S. has more than 80.5 million active coronavirus infections and 988,121 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins.
Until last month, the U.S. was conducting close to 1.5 million tests a day data from the Covid Tracking Project shows.
To contain the spread of the virus, public health experts have repeatedly said that widespread testing is the only alternative to mass lockdowns.
The White House has warned that without additional funding from the Congress, the federal government will be unable to sustain the testing capacity built over the last 14 months.
"After spending the last year building up our testing capacity, that progress will be squandered, the Administration will be unable to help keep domestic manufacturers online starting in June," according to a statement from March 15.
"That means, heading into the second half of the year, there will be significantly diminished domestic testing capacity and we may be unprepared for surges."
New Breathalyzer Test
As of April 13, 2022, the current seven-day moving average of daily new reported Covid cases stood at 31,391, according to data from Centers for Disease and Control Prevention.
With Covid-19 cases in the U.S. on the rise again, the Food and Drug Administration recently granted emergency use authorization for detecting Covid-19 in breath samples via what it said is the first device submitted for approval.
Research, development and device company InspectIR Systems's Covid-19 Breathalyzer test, which is about the size of a piece of carry-on luggage, can provide results in less than three minutes.
This test uses a technique called gas chromatography gas mass-spectrometry, to detect chemical compounds associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection when you exhale or breath out.
This technique is widely used to analyze chemicals, from tracking organic pollutants in the environment to monitoring food contamination.
InspectIR expects to be able to produce around 100 instruments per week, which can each be used to evaluate close to 160 samples per day. This could increase testing capacity by roughly 64,000 samples per month.
"Today’s authorization is yet another example of the rapid innovation occurring with diagnostic tests for COVID-19,” said FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health Director Jeff Shuren on April 14.
“The FDA continues to support the development of novel COVID-19 tests with the goal of advancing technologies that can help address the current pandemic and better position the U.S. for the next public health emergency," Shuren added.
In a study of 2409 people, the Covid-19 breath test was able to identify 91.2% of the positive test samples accurately.
"The test had a negative predictive value of 99.6%, meaning that people who receive a negative test result are likely truly negative in areas of low disease prevalence. The test performed with similar sensitivity in a follow-up clinical study focused on the omicron variant," the FDA said.
On Twitter, American cardiologist Eric Topol said, the breath test "beats" PCR testing, where a nasal swab is pushed inside your nose.
