Durham tech firm receives £1.25m backing to create Covid detection equipment

A North East medical technology firm has announced that it has received £1.25m of funding to develop a coronavirus detection system.

Kromek, based in County Durham, has received the funding from Innovate UK to customise its biological threat detection solution for the automated detection of all airborne viruses, including Covid-19.

The solution is designed to be deployed in areas such as airports, hospitals, retail outlets and entertainment venues.

The company has said that it expects the first pilots with potential users to begin by the end of this financial year, and is aiming to make the solution commercially available next year.

Arnab Basu, CEO of Kromek, commented: “We are very pleased to have received backing from UKRI and Innovate UK to progress the deployment of our solution for the detection of airborne COVID-19.

“Our system can augment the government’s Test and Trace system by enabling early identification of potential exposure to the virus while supporting the safe return of visitors to public spaces like mass transport, retail outlets and entertainment venues.

“We also believe that the continuous monitoring with our system, which can test for a wide spectrum of viruses as well as mutations of Covid-19, has significant potential for protecting against the outbreak of pandemics in the future.”