Innovation in Motion - Singapore’s Battle Against Covid−19
- 4 years ago
Faced with a global shortage amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a multidisciplinary research team in Singapore innovated a new method of producing nasopharyngeal (NP) swabs in less than seven weeks, enabling the city-state to curtail an uptick in infections.
The shortage of NP swabs was among the biggest challenges the city-state faced amid the pandemic. These flexible bristle-headed sticks are used to collect fluid samples from the nose and throat. Without them, testing for the virus is not feasible, yet the limited number of manufacturers worldwide were unable to meet the sharp spike in global demand.
The shortage of NP swabs was among the biggest challenges the city-state faced amid the pandemic. These flexible bristle-headed sticks are used to collect fluid samples from the nose and throat. Without them, testing for the virus is not feasible, yet the limited number of manufacturers worldwide were unable to meet the sharp spike in global demand.