China's Ministry of Science and Technology Saturday released an application guide on its website to solicit research and development projects on rapid test kits for the novel coronavirus.

The ministry said that current nucleic acid detection reagents require long time, fussy operations and centralized detection. They are unable to meet the fast-growing needs of the quick testing on suspected patients and asymptomatic infections.

The purpose of this guideline is to widely solicit on-site virus detection products, which can break through the limitations of existing testing technologies on personnel or places, shorten testing time, provide easier and faster operation and make rapid diagnosis of suspected patients and on-site screening of people in close contact, the ministry said.

The new on-site quick testing equipment and reagents should be able to identify confirmed infection among suspected patients within 1.5 hours, according to the guideline.

The ministry, together with the national medical products watchdog, will support the development of qualified candidate projects.

Research institutes, universities and enterprises can submit applications to the ministry from Feb. 8 to 13.

To help prevent and control the epidemic, the ministry has so far launched three batches of 16 emergency sci-tech projects, including virus tracking and the development of drugs, vaccines and testing reagents.

A number of research teams across China are developing or have developed testing products for the novel coronavirus. 

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