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Researchers at Yale University have developed a portable mini tracker, capable of detecting the presence of Covid-19 in the air. A device that could be particularly useful for workers in high-risk environments, such as healthcare facilities.
Generally very bulky detection devices
COVID-19 is transmitted primarily through the inhalation of virus-laden aerosols and respiratory droplets that infected people expel by coughing, sneezing, talking or breathing. Researchers used active air sampling devices to detect airborne SARS-CoV-2 indoors. But these monitors are most often large, expensive and require electricity.
Fresh Air Clip: a miniature and inexpensive tracker
To better understand personal exposures to the virus, Godri Pollitt’s team sought to develop a small, lightweight, inexpensive and portable device that does not require a power source.
Called Fresh Air Clip, this portable device easily clips onto any garment. It would be able to detect low levels of virus presence, even well below the estimated infectious dose. The idea would thus be to be able to anticipate the risk and alert people that they may be quickly exposed to the risk of contamination. The device is described in the review Environmental Science & Technology Letters from the American Chemical Society .
Useful for hazardous environments
It can thus determine if a person is exposed to the virus, which can prove to be useful for people living in particularly exposed environments, starting with health establishments or places that receive a lot of people, such as restaurants.
To achieve this result, the researchers had to miniaturize the already known virus detection devices, all without any source of energy. In fact, the Fresh Air Clip detects fine virus-laden particles that are deposited on a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) surface.
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Towards an upcoming commercialization?
Initial tests were organized with around sixty people, who agreed to wear the monitor for five days. A total of five of those people were exposed to the virus: four servers and one person working at a homeless shelter.
The designers of this new tracker hope to one day be able to make their discovery available to the general public.