Staff at Sansure Biotech operate the fast COVID-19 nucleic acid testing system. [Photo/chinanews.com]

A Chinese biotech company has independently developed a fast COVID-19 nucleic acid testing system, which shortens detection time to within one hour, chinanews.com reported.

Sansure Biotech Inc, based in Changsha, Central China's Hunan province, released the fast diagnostic system via online livestreaming on Thursday. The system doesn't require a professional laboratory and gives a test result within 15-45 minutes. Previously people have had to wait several hours for results.

The system obtained the National Medical Products Administration approval and the European Union's CE mark in April. It can bring nucleic acid tests beyond professional laboratories to more scenarios.

At present, nucleic acid test schemes applicable to places including fever clinics, grassroots medical institutions, customs and airports are still scarce.

Sansure Biotech's fast diagnostic system can improve the efficiency of reporting test results to patients at fever clinics and shorten the visit time. In some circumstances, this could help solve big problems in the clinical setting, said Li Jinming, deputy director of the National Center for Clinical Laboratories at the National Health Commission.

Dai Lizhong, chairman of Sansure Biotech, said the fast diagnostic system is a flagship product the company developed in efforts to promote nucleic acid testing in all scenarios.

Sansure Biotech, which develops and manufactures products for molecular laboratories, has played a role in global epidemic prevention and control since the COVID-19 outbreak. The COVID-19 nucleic acid test reagent and nucleic acid test analyzer developed by the company have been used in more than 120 countries in the world.