By Jop de Vrieze May. 17, 2021 , 4:10 PM Science 's COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Heising-Simons Foundation. People seeking to get tested for COVID-19 by Amsterdam's Public Health Service (GGD) in February were pioneers: They were the first in the world to be tested using a "breathalyzer" that can sniff out the disease based on a mix of chemical components exhaled by the patient. The approach promises to be faster and less unpleasant than a nose or throat swab, and cheaper. But soon after its premiere, 25 people who tested negative turned out to have COVID-19 after all, and Amsterdam halted its use. The Dutch government has decided the device itself was innocent, however, and has not withdrawn its authorization. A commercial testing company is now deploying it widely—for example to screen workers at the Eurovision Song Contest, which begins tomorrow in Rotterdam. SpiroNose isn't meant to definitively diagnose infection; instead it aims to rule it out in as many cases as possible. For the remainder, the test yields an "inconclusive," and those people receive a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or antigen test. "What we want is to exclude as many people as possible who might be… Read full this story
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