FORGET nasal swabs - scientists in the USA have developed a new algorithm which claims to be able to detect COVID-19 by the sound of a patient's cough.
Details of the breakthrough were published in the IEEE Journal of Engineering in Medicine and Biology last week, with MIT researchers describing their artificial intelligence platform was able to successfully confirm COVID-19 diagnoses in 98.5% of cases.
Apparently an asymptomatic coronavirus cough has a slightly different sound to other coughs because of the COVID-19 impact on the respiratory system, but the human ear is unable to pick up the difference.
The algorithm was tested on about 70,000 audio samples of coughs, of which 2,500 were from people with confirmed cases of coronavirus.
The MIT boffins said the system could be used to screen students, workers or the public on a daily basis, or to quickly alert of outbreaks within groups.
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