An international research team involving the universities of Paraná (Brazil) and Tübingen (Germany) has developed a rapid test that can reliably identify COVID-19 antibodies in the blood within minutes. As the researchers report in the journal ACS Sensors, the new process is based on a simple measuring principle making it easy to carry out without expensive instruments, and is therefore suitable for use at mobile testing centers or by laboratories in less economically developed regions. The new diagnostic method is also far faster than the enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) procedure, which for decades has been seen as the gold standard for laboratory diagnosis of antibodies.