NEW HAVEN, Connecticut - A new, wearable device may help alert you if you are exposed to COVID-19. Researchers at the Yale School of Public Health developed an easy-to-clip-on device that can help detect low levels of SARS-COV-2 and subsequently whether a person has been exposed.
According to the study, published Jan. 11 in a peer-reviewed online journal Environmental Science and Technology Letters, the device captures virus-laden aerosols that deposit on a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) surface.
The team tested the air sampler in a rotating drum, in which they generated aerosols containing a surrogate virus with similar properties to SARS-CoV-2.
This allowed the researchers to detect the virus on the sampler to estimate airborne virus concentrations.Image of Fresh Air Clip (Credit: Yale School of Public Health/Krystal Godri Pollitt) "With this clip we can detect low levels of virus that are well below the estimated SARS-CoV-2 infectious dose," Krystal Godri Pollitt, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Yale, said in a press release. "The Fresh Air Clip serves to identify exposure events early, alerting people to get tested or quarantine.