The evidence is that COVID-19 is spread by respiratory droplets from a carrier to a non-carrier through coughs and sneezes, therefore by definition the virus could  be best identified within droplets on the exhaled breath.

At ZP we are promoting the Inflammacheck from Exhalation Health for the collection of breath condensate for the subsequent analysis of the breath  by tests such as PCR and lateral flow.

For example a limitation of PCR  is that when a sample is taken for PCR-COVID-19 testing, the sample often contains a lot of background biological materials from the patients, and  so it is harder to identify the RNA of the virus against the 'mess' of other molecules from the patient. This means that the PCR analysis takes longer and may may lead to false negatives. 

If the same PCR test was run on the  breath condensate then the sample is now naturally enriched with viruses and the confounding molecules from the person are at much lower concentrations, this allows for a much cleaner PCR test and subsequently this makes for a more certain final result.

Please contact ZP to discuss linking the Inflammacheck rapid breath collection technology with COVID-19 testing.

The Inflammacheck from Exhalation Technology is a CE marked Medical Diagnostic for profiling the breath of patients with chronic lung diseases. The Inflammacheck  can profile the user's breath for  five biomarkers including  their breath condensate hydrogen peroxide concentration. At ZP we are seeking partners to be part of repositioning the Inflammacheck for COVID-19 screening.