NEWS AND MORE's video: Dutch roll out coronavirus breath tests for immediate results

Dutch roll out coronavirus breath tests for immediate results The Netherlands is set to introduce rapid breath tests to its coronavirus testing facilities in an effort to speed up testing and make the process less intrusive. Major municipal test facilities in Amsterdam this week were the first to start using the SpiroNose, a machine which only requires a person to take a few breaths into it to indicate a possible coronavirus infection within a minute. After months of testing, Dutch health authorities found the SpiroNose to be reliable in the case of negative test results, infectious disease expert Mariken van der Lubben of Amsterdam's municipal health services told Reuters. A positive test, however, still needs to be followed by a regular polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test to establish whether the detected infection is caused by a coronavirus or something else. "They are especially promising because of the speed, the rapidity by which you can get the result in literally a minute," Belgian virologist Marc Van Ranst said. "However, the performance, how good is it? We don't know, honestly," he added. Van Ranst said lengthy test periods comparing the breath test with the PCR test would be necessary to see whether the test could also make the distinction between different types of viruses. Dutch health tech company Breathomix, which originally developed the machine to detect asthma and lung cancer, said it had collected enough data to reliably spot a possible coronavirus infection. "In the past couple of months we have measured thousands of patients with corona and people that don't have corona, so we know what is the average breath profile of corona and people without corona", Breathomix executive Rianne de Vries said. Breathomix is investigating options to use the SpiroNose in companies or schools, De Vries said, to help them create a safe work environment. But the machine won't offer a direct solution for reopening venues to large audiences again, she said, as every test takes 2 to 3 minutes from start to finish and the machine is very sensitive to alcohol, smoke and other distracting factors in a person's breath. (Production: Esther Verkaik, Bart Biesemans, Christian Levaux, Yves Herman, Clement Rossignol)