Coronavirus: Protocols

Robots could boost Covid-19 testing

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Japan could be turning to the help of robots to help ramp up its Covid-19 testing capabilities, with less than 200 days to go until the Olympic Games are due to start in Tokyo.

TOKYO • Japan's Health Minister watched a demonstration yesterday of a prototype automated Covid-19 testing machine that uses a robotic arm to take a sample from a person's nose and can deliver the results in about 80 minutes.

The robot system, built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries, fits in a standard shipping container that can be transported by truck and set up at stadiums, theme parks and other mass gatherings, the company said.

"Looking at the global trend, we need to increase the number of people receiving tests, and the demand for preventive testing is rising," Health Minister Norihisa Tamura told reporters at the demonstration.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's administration has attracted criticism for Japan's paucity of testing.

His government is under pressure to show it has the pandemic under control with fewer than 200 days until the July 23 start of the Olympic Games in Tokyo - already delayed by a year - and vaccinations yet to start.

The use of robot testing systems may help to preserve medical manpower and improve overall accuracy, Tamura said, without committing to using the set-up.

The prototype facility uses human-driven robotic arms to collect samples from individuals and perform polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests.

The system is housed in mobile, 40-foot shipping containers that would be able to process up to 2,000 samples every 16 hours.

Its developers say it offers greater efficiencies of scale and better protection for medical workers, who can even operate testing remotely.

From the start of the pandemic, Japan has done fewer tests than other major economies, focusing on infection clusters and virus tracing, conducting about 55,000 PCR tests daily, which is less than half of its capacity.

Mr Suga has said his government aims to have the first Covid-19 vaccine approved and inoculations beginning by the end of next month, a time frame that is behind many other countries.

REUTERS

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on January 20, 2021, with the headline Robots could boost Covid-19 testing. Subscribe