A TECHNOLOGY firm has secured funding to develop new equipment to detect coronavirus in the air.

Kromek, at Sedgefield, has launched a £1.25m programme funded by Innovate UK to customise its biological threat-detection solution for the automated detection of all airborne viruses, including Covid-19.

The group’s solution is designed to be deployed in high footfall locations, such as airports, hospitals, retail outlets and entertainment venues.

The base technology, which is fully developed, samples the air in-situ to detect and analyse airborne pathogens using DNA sequencing.

In response to the pandemic, the firm hopes to develop a system that will rapidly test for the presence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.

It will run automatically and the results will not require analysis by trained individuals or specialist laboratories.

Dr Arnab Basu, chief executive of Kromek, said: “Our system can augment the Government’s Test and Trace system by enabling early identification of potential exposure to the virus while supporting the safe return of visitors to public spaces like mass transport, retail outlets and entertainment venues. We also believe that the continuous monitoring with our system, which can test for a wide spectrum of viruses as well as mutations of Covid-19, has significant potential for protecting against the outbreak of pandemics in the future.”