Pluslife Biotech, an enterprise based in the Greater Bay Area in Hong Kong, has launched the first handheld COVID-19 Nucleic Acid Test to help with epidemic prevention and control.

In response to challenges including the lack of manpower for pandemic prevention and control, and the limited testing capacity, the Hong Kong SAR government has rolled out a universal program, distributing testing kits and allowing the residents to test themselves for COVID-19. Those who need to confirm the results can go to the testing stations to get additional confirmatory qPCR tests.

The Diagnosis and Treatment Protocol for COVID-19 (Trial Version 8), jointly released by the National Health Commission and National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, clearly states that the positive result of nucleic acid test is the primary criterion for COVID-19 diagnosis. Compared to rapid antigen test, the sensitivity and specificity of nucleic acid test are far superior, and it can also detect infected patients at a much earlier stage. 

Pluslife's POCT nucleic acid testing reaches very high level of sensitivity, specificity and accuracy, which is similar as qPCR test. It also can stably detect viruses at a very low LoD (Limit of Detection). The actual stable LoD is 200 copies/mL, which is even better than qPCR test.