Merkel called the coming weeks the most difficult for Germany due to COVID-19

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the coming weeks will be the most difficult for her country due to the situation with the coronavirus pandemic. RIA Novosti reports.

According to her, Germany and other European countries are faced with a second dangerous wave of infection.

“The next weeks of winter will be likely to be the most severe phase of the pandemic,” the chancellor said.

She noted that doctors and healthcare professionals in many clinics are working to their limits. Merkel also added that it is difficult to calculate the impact of the increased incidence during the New Year and Christmas holidays.

“Our goal is clear - we must very significantly reduce the number of new cases of the disease, to the level of 50 new cases per 100 thousand population in seven days, or even better - below this value,” the German Chancellor emphasized.

Earlier in Germany, quarantine was extended due to the coronavirus pandemic, introduced in December, until January 31. So, residents of crisis regions were forbidden to move away from home without a good reason for a distance exceeding 15 kilometers. Good reasons include, for example, seeing a doctor.

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Turkey announced the creation of a device that diagnoses COVID-19 in 10 seconds

Scientists at the Bilkent University Research Center (Turkey) claim to have developed an ultra-fast and highly accurate coronavirus test that can seriously compete with the PCR test.

According to the researchers, their Diagnovir device, developed on the basis of nanotechnology, shows the result within 10 seconds with an accuracy of 99%, a reference to Euronews.

To do this, first, a swab is taken from the patient's mouth, which is then mixed with a solution and added to a chip to detect pathogens.

"It detects the presence of pathogens with high accuracy by receiving a fluorescent signal," said one of the researchers at the Turkish National Center for Nanotechnology.

He explained that the device, on average, detects a positive result within 5-10 seconds, but if it is negative, the process can take up to 20 seconds.

Researchers are now awaiting approval from the Turkish authorities and expect to begin mass production of devices in the coming months.

They hope that eventually, their invention will replace PCR tests.

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