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Four Indonesian airports to trial GeNose coronavirus breath tests starting April 1
The government will introduce GeNose pre-boarding tests for domestic travellers at four international airports on April 1. But health experts point to the lack of papers on the device's efficacy in peer-reviewed journals as a note of caution.
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GeNose COVID-19 breathalyzers appear in this undated handout photograph provided by Gadjah Mada University, which developed the devices. Following last month's rollout at train stations serving long-distance routes, the government plans to trial the devices at four international airports starting on April 1. (Gadjah Mada University/Handout)
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nternational airports in Bandung, Surabaya, Yogyakarta and Palembang plan to start offering the GeNose coronavirus breathalyzer test to domestic passengers on April 1 in a bid to speed up health checks, despite the current mobility restrictions in Indonesia.
Transportation Ministry spokesperson Adita Irawati said the GeNose breathalyzers delivered results in minutes and offered a faster alternative to presenting the results of rapid antigen tests and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, which took days to analyze.
Developed by researchers at Gadjah Mada University (UGM), GeNose uses artificial intelligence to detect possible COVID-19 infection by analyzing human breath.
Read also: Locally made COVID-19 detector approved by Health Ministry
“The initial trials will be carried out in Palembang, Bandung, Yogyakarta and Surabaya,” Adita told The Jakarta Post via text message on Tuesday.
The airports conducting the trials are Husein Sastranegara International Airport in Bandung, West Java, Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II International Airport in Palembang, South Sumatra, Yogyakarta International Airport in the namesake province and Juanda International Airport in Surabaya, East Java.
The ministry has not planned any GeNose trials at the country’s two busiest airports: Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta and I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar, Bali.
