Coronavirus: biotech firm develops platform for Hongkongers to check Covid-19 viral load using photos of rapid antigen tests
- System uses artificial intelligence to deduce viral load based on shades of lines on rapid test kits
- Service is free for first 200,000 Hong Kong resident users
A biotech company has launched a digital platform to allow Covid-19 patients self-isolating at home in Hong Kong to check their viral load through photos of their rapid test kits.
The service, developed using artificial intelligence, has been provided for free for the first 200,000 Hong Kong resident users since Sunday under the sponsorship of charity fund Philip K.H. Wong Foundation. Subsequent users will have to pay HK$50.
The Antigen Rapid Test Quantitative System, or the “ART-Quant System”, will deduce the viral load Covid-19 patients carry based on the shades of the test line on the rapid antigen test kits. The darker the line, the more viral load a patient has.
“Those residents in home quarantine can be less worried about their conditions as they can have a better idea about their recovery progress after the evaluation,” chairman of Hai Kang Life Corporation Albert Yu Cheung-hoi said on Tuesday. The firm is the parent company of DNA-TECH, which created the system.
Yu, a neuroscientist, said a report will be generated within 20 seconds of users uploading three photos of the fast-testing kits and answering a health assessment questionnaire.
The report will identify the amount of viral load that Covid-19 patients have from Grade 1 to Grade 5. The higher the grade, the greater the viral load.
