On Sunday the Gulf emirate of Abu Dhabi began using a new Covid-19 “scanning” system to check people arriving by road from neighbouring Dubai. The system is a local invention and if it lives up to the claims made by its supporters it could revolutionise testing methods.
Known as Exponential Deep Examination (EDE), it is said to be capable of spotting Covid infections in just 50 milliseconds from a distance of up to five metres.
It was approved last summer by Abu Dhabi’s health department following a pilot trial involving 20,000 people “conducted at various locations in the emirate, including the Ghantout entry point, select public locations on Yas Island, and entry/exit points in the Musaffah area”. According to the department it can identify infected people with 90% accuracy and non-infected people with 83% accuracy.