29 July, 2020: By Ajoy Maitra
A new technology has been researched and invented in Portugal, on last Tuesday, which can inactive 99.97% of SARS-CoV-2 virus particles in the air within 1minute & 100% within five minutes. The new technology to combat Covid-19 was created as part of a project led by the BLC3 Technology and Innovation Campus in Oliveira do Hospital, in partnership with the University of Minho and the Colleges of Pharmacy of the Universities of Lisbon and Coimbra, the research coordinator, Joao Nunes.

"In one minute, of 16,982 SARS-CoV-2 virus particles in a sample, only five particles were not inactivated ('dead' in common sense), which gave a result of 99.97%. And after five and 15 minutes, total inactivity was obtained, 100%, and without any variation in the behavior of the virus," Joao Nunes said.
"In studying the behavior of the virus, the researchers concluded that "one of the weakest point of the virus, has been resistance to solar radiation," Joao Nunes said.
The technology now developed, called AT MicroProtect, is based on a "new concept of 'reverse physics,' which integrates a system of emission of wavelengths, in a controlled and targeted way, much more efficient than solar radiation (new principle of fluid mechanics applied to the flow and propagation of the virus in air terms), with the development of mathematical and physical algorithms on the behavior of the virus," he explained.
Such technology must be applied to shopping malls, airports or any other public places and on priority for the protection of health professionals. It can also be applied to hotels & restaurants with the problem of indoor air quality, which the scientist pointed out adding that "a protection system and chamber between health professionals and users" have also been developed, and a model of creating "antechamber zones in hospitals for the safest execution of the circulation process."
"The virus in itself has no intelligence and we humans have intelligence and knowledge and these are the best weapons we can use against it," said Joao Nunes, arguing that "you can't just wait for a vaccine and drug response in an airborne virus situation."
The commercial results of the technology will be "applied to research," he added.
"We have to learn to be prepared in another way, we have to gain the rapid capacity to act," all the more so because "it is not yet certain when there will be a vaccine," the researcher stressed, while pointing out the research involved knowledge in several areas, such as mechanical engineering, physics, microbiology and virology.
"Today, we have a very deep scientific base knowledge about the behavior of this virus," which will allow, "the development of more technology and knowledge and expand the application to other viruses and bacteria of interest for safety and public health," he added.