Pakistani researchers develop AI system that detects COVID-19 in under a minute

Pakistani scientists have developed a software based on artificial intelligence that can help detect COVID-19 within a minute.

The news was broken by Science Diplomacy Pakistan, a division of the Ministry of Foreign Affair, in a tweet over the weekend. COVID Rapid AI Detection (COV-RAID) has an accuracy of more than 90% and is a cost-effective and universally accessible diagnostic tool.

Science Diplomacy Pakistan congratulated the National Electronics Complex of Pakistan (NECOP) and the country’s scientists on developing this tool, a media report says.

It said Pakistan was ready to explore collaborations and partnerships to share this technology with the world.

The Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) had done a trial test of detecting coronavirus with chest X-rays using artificial intelligence, the National Command and Operating Centre said.

Permission for the trial test was given to NECOP by the PEC. A final test report has, however, yet to be shared by the PEC.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had launched its ‘Science Diplomacy’ webpage as part of an effort to increase its contribution to the global science landscape and create synergies for international scientific cooperation.

A data repository of chest X-rays has been created to fine-tune the diagnostic software’s ability to identify coronavirus symptoms in patients, as per the COV-RAID website.

This means the software can utilize a chest X-ray image of a patient to detect whether the person has the virus or not by comparing it to the reference images it has in its data repository.

COV-RAID can be used at isolation centers for prognosis of patients to detect their timely recovery. This will decrease the load on the infrastructure and will help to relocate individuals back to their home more quickly after recovery.

A website for the tool includes the software’s features, availability and other information to understand how it works.