World-first research by Monash University in Australia has been able to detect positive COVID-19 cases using blood samples in about 20 minutes, and identify whether someone has contracted the virus.

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In a discovery that could advance the worldwide effort to limit the community spread of COVID-19 through robust contact tracing, researchers were able to identify recent COVID-19 cases using 25 microlitres of plasma from blood samples.

The research team, led by BioPRIA and Monash University's Chemical Engineering Department, including researchers from the ARC Center of Excellence in Convergent BioNano Science and Technology (CBNS), developed a simple agglutination assay—an analysis to determine the presence and amount of a substance in blood—to detect the presence of antibodies raised in response to the SARS-CoV-2 infection.