Covid 19 Omicron outbreak: Businesses use NZ device for virus screening

Kiwi start-up Ubiquitome has another option for Covid testing. Photo / NZME

Companies faced with constrained supply of rapid antigen testing kits are taking Covid-19 screening into their own hands by using a device offered by Kiwi start-up Ubiquitome.

The company says its Liberty16 real-time device has United States Food and Drug Administration "emergency use" approval when paired with SalivaDirect, a sample collection protocol from Yale University's School of Public Health.

Testing using the Liberty16 takes about two hours from prepping the saliva sample to the result shown on an iPhone app.

Chief executive Paul Pickering said businesses have run into difficulty securing rapid antigen test (RAT) kits and there's concern that they identify workers with Covid too late, after they had already been able to shed the virus infecting others for days.

"PCR (polymerase chain reaction) testing remains the gold standard for identifying Covid early," Pickering said.

Ubiquitome is a New Zealand-based developer of handheld, cloud-connected, real-time genetic analysis devices.

The PCR process involves a chemical reaction where the genetic material from a sample is amplified to identify viruses or bacteria.

Ubiquitome's manager commercial operations, Mila Al-Halbouni, said the Liberty16 had been developed before the arrival of Covid-19 as a mobile, cost-effective PCR machine that could used by labs anywhere, particularly in remote settings.

"It was not developed specifically for Covid but when the Yale Public School of Health in the US started working on saliva material they used a big range of PCR machines, and one was the Liberty16," she told the Herald.

Testing using the Liberty16 takes about two hours from prepping the saliva sample to the result shown on an iPhone app. Image / Supplied

Companies such as NZX-listed Napier Port, Endoscopy Auckland, and Winstone Pulp International (WPI) have been deploying the combination for several months, Ubiquitome said.

"The lack of availability of on-the-ground testing, constrained supplies, and Government ministries commandeering future supplies, compounds the problem for businesses," Napier Port chief executive Todd Dawson said.

"Supply chains are already under pressure, and with the potential for Omicron to take out vast swathes of people from the workforce, having no testing capability on-site to help minimise spread or clear workers to return to work, is a big problem and one that could have been easily avoided with some advanced planning."

Napier Port acquired the Liberty16 in September, spent a month training and has been doing around 1000 tests a week since November.

Dawson told the Herald the port had set up its screening processes in conjunction with the Hawke's Bay District Health Board.

"We set up a process where everybody was effectively tested every second day they were at work," Dawson said.

"We have since ramped that up to daily with the arrival or Omicron," he said.

The process involves employees spitting into a specimen jar.

Samples are tested on-site and results come back within a couple of hours.

"We are using it as surveillance tool to make sure we can stop it before it comes in," he said.

"It's more accurate than a rapid antigen test, which can be quite hit and miss, and not available if you wanted them.

"It's a solution for companies whether RATs are available or not," he said.

"We think it's better because it is more accurate, more timely, and is less invasive."

The Companies Office lists Pickering as a shareholder and director of Ubiquitome.

Aucklanders Jim Quinn and Gretel Roberts are listed as directors.