Control of coronavirus expansion and identification of infected people have become the top priorities in the current health crisis situation. The use of COVINIRS technology would provide a fast and effective method for diagnosing COVID-19 cases. In an altruistic way and based on the Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) technique, this initiative will seek to offer a more effective and lower-cost to the diagnostic techniques currently in use.

COVINIRS target is to design and to validate an effective and sure method for the rapid diagnosis of COVID-19. To do this, it has started a study in samples infected and not infected with very satisfactory results. With the right means, it could begin to be implemented in a matter of months on a large scale.

Luis de Luque Ripoll, researcher at the Universidad de Alcalá, is an external advisor on this project. De Luque has years of experience in NIRS technology applications for botanical species recognition, equipment management or design and the development of predictive models. Luis de Luque points out that ‘participating in such a project is an enormous opportunity to contribute to the fight against the pandemic and to facilitate the arrival of conditions that will enable us to recover our normal lives. (…) Projects like ours can better prepare us for a future full of uncertainties by the possible repetition of pandemics like the present’.

The COVINIRS initiative already has the collaboration of the Hospital Clínic of Valencia (through INCLIVA), Hospital Fundación Alcorcón, Hospital Gregorio Marañón, Hospital Rey Juan Carlos, the universities of Alcalá and Complutense de Madrid, Generalitat Valenciana, and distributors of equipment, such as JASCO Analítica Spain and BONSAI Advanced Technologies.

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