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Fast, Less-Accurate Coronavirus Tests May Be Good Enough, Experts suggest

For months, the call for coronavirus testing has been led by one resounding refrain: To keep outbreaks under control, doctors and researchers need to deploy the most accurate tests available — ones reliable enough to root out as many infections as possible, even in the absence of symptoms.

That’s long been the dogma of infectious disease diagnostics, experts say, since it helps ensure that cases won’t be missed. During this pandemic, that has meant relying heavily on PCR testing, an extremely accurate but time- and labor-intensive method that requires samples to be processed at laboratories.

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ANALYSIS: The Unique failure of the U.S to control the spread of the coronavirusco

Nearly every country has struggled to contain the coronavirus and made mistakes along the way.

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U.K. to start distributing 90 minute coronavirus and flu tests.

New 90-minute tests that can detect coronavirus and flu will be rolled out in hospitals and care homes from next week.

The "on-the-spot" swab and DNA tests will help distinguish between Covid-19 and other seasonal illnesses, the government said.

The health secretary said this would be "hugely beneficial" over the winter.

Currently, a third of tests take longer than 24 hours to process.

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