Covid vaccination drives may have been initiated in most parts of the world including the Middle East, but testing and tracing infections remains the key technique to contain an outbreak. Firms across the region have been coming up with tests which can speed up the process of spotting covid positive patients to facilitate quick and convenient resumption of normal life.

The Emirates and its neighbours largely relied on thermal scanners in public spaces along with drive-through screening techniques to look for covid symptoms during the pandemic. Owing to its enthusiasm for adopting new tech, the UAE provided the perfect environment to test a breathalyser that is now successfully detecting covid.

The gadget by Breathonix, which was undergoing trials in the Emirates, has now been approved for use by Singapore, and more countries may soon come on board. The device scans a person's breath to flag signs of a possible covid infection, so that they can be isolated for PCR tests.

Breathonix's method which looks for biomarkers when a person exhales into the breathalyser, takes less than a minute to figure out if the person may be covid positive or not. The pace of delivering results is crucial since it will speed up traveling in the new normal and also help contain the spread of the virus by identifying risks quickly.

The hints that this test tries to spot are present in volatile organic compounds, which display changes as a response to specific bacteria present in the body. The tests for this tech in the Emirates were conducted as a collaboration between Dubai Health Authority and MBR University.

Prior to this, saliva tests have also been used in the UAE as an alternative to nasal swab tests, for a relatively painless and hassle free experience for patients. Inventors in the region have also introduced a technology, which can flag symptoms of a covid infection from the subtle changes in a person's voice.