Will Do-It-Yourself Corona Test Be Available Soon? (It Would Cost Ten Bucks and only Take 15 Minutes)

In the United States, as the testing capacity is not close to the testing needs, a race to come up with a paper-based test for coronavirus has surged. It might be the solution to test sufficiently and, eventually, reopen the country safely.

The test would use paper strips, borrowing from the tried-and-true technology used in pregnancy tests, for example, and could cost less than $10 each. Two paper-based antigen tests have received emergency-use approval in the U.S., and they provide results within 15 minutes.

“You buy a kit at the pharmacy, you test yourself and you know whether you can go see your grandparents this weekend,” says Kevin Nichols, a diagnostics researcher at Global Health Labs, a nonprofit in Bellevue, Washington. “The tradeoff,” Nichols says of an antigen-based test, “is that it’s not quite as sensitive but oftentimes it can be good enough to be useful.”

The tests use a paper strip typically coated with immune-system molecules called antibodies. The sample provided by the person pases through the antibodies which are snatched up by any viral antigens in the sample. This antigen-antibody combo migrates to the strip’s test zone and triggers a chemical reaction that causes a color change, indicating a positive result.