By NoCamels Team
January 21, 2021 5 minutes
Health & ScienceTech & Innovation
United Hatzalah is rolling out rapid COVID testing kits in partnership with Israeli biotech startup Nanosynex. Courtesy
Israeli emergency medical services organization United Hatzalah (UH) will be rolling out COVID-19 rapid diagnostic kits in partnership with Israeli biotech startup Nanosynex, as part of a pilot initiative to ramp up mass testing efforts affordably and efficiently.
The kits consist of an antibody detection test (also known as a serological test), performed on blood extracted from a finger prick, and an antigen detection test, performed via a nasal swab. The antibody test determines the presence of COVID-19 antibodies; the antigen test detects fragments of proteins of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Both tests have been proven effective, with sensitivity and specificity of well over 90 percent, and results are obtained in approximately 15 minutes.
Israeli medtech firm claims it may have found Covid-19 cure
A new treatment based on proteins could cure people with the Covid-19 virus, an Israeli startup claims.
According to Tel Aviv-based Novel Concepts Medical, the treatment is a combination of natural compounds and was proven in lab results to show a significant decrease in the amount of the Covid-19 ‘spike protein’ within a few hours of incubation.
The company’s founder, Dr. Rachel R. Alkalay, who is a PhD graduate of Queen Mary University London, explained to
City A.M. that the spike protein is the part in the virus that connects the virus to the cell.