A former student of Allahabad University (AU) claims to have developed a biosensor that can detect Covid-19 infection through sweat samples. Amit Dubey, 34, who is working as a senior scientist at Quanta Calculus, Greater Noida, claims that he has developed the world’s first specific, reliable ultra-small gold nanoclusters for biomedical and biosensing applications to detect Covid. His work can lead to a new age of effective and cheaper testing kits capable of detecting Covid-19 using just the sweat of an individual instead of nasal or throat swabs that kits of today need.

Sharing his research, findings of which have been recently published in ‘Luminescence: The Journal of Biological and Chemical Luminescence’, a US journal published by Wiley, Dubey said the biosensors would be a one-step identification or sensing technique. Ultra-small gold nanoclusters, with diameters less than 2 nm, are attracting increasing attention due to their unique size-dependent physiochemical properties which include strong luminescence and excellent biocompatibility.

“I hope this research can lead to a new generation of low-cost biosensors,” the scientist said.

COVID in India

No new COVID-19 case or death linked to the infection was reported in Chhattisgarh on Tuesday, which kept the overall tally and the toll unchanged at 11,77,777 and 14,146, respectively, a health department official said. The recovery count rose to 11,63,629 after one more patient recuperated during the day, leaving the state with two active cases. So far, 1,88,76,462 coronavirus tests have been conducted in the state, including 1,166 during the day, a government release said.

 
On the other hand, Maharashtra recorded 11 new cases, which took the overall tally to 81,37,144, while the death toll stood unchanged at 1,48,421, the health department said. The recovery count increased by eight to touch 79,88,656, leaving the state with an active caseload of 67. As per official data, the state’s coronavirus recovery rate was 98.18 per cent, while the fatality rate stood at 1.82 per cent.

A state health department bulletin said 15,105 out of 6,67,881 international passengers, who have arrived at airports in Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur since December 24, have been subjected to RT-PCR tests for detecting coronavirus, and 29 swab samples have returned positive results.

Of these 29 coronavirus patients, 15 were from Maharashtra – seven from Mumbai, four from Pune and one each from Navi Mumbai, Amravati, Aurangabad and Sangli. The rest were from other states – Gujarat (5), Kerala and Uttar Pradesh (2 each), Goa, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Odisha and Telangana (one each). 

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