The Netherlands is to introduce rapid COVID-19 breath tests to sites across the country to speed up the testing process and make it less intrusive, Reuters reported.

Testing facilities in the capital Amsterdam were this week the first to start using the SpiroNose, a machine which requires a person to breathe into it to indicate a possible coronavirus infection within a minute.

After months of trials, Dutch health authorities found the SpiroNose to be reliable in the case of negative test results, infectious disease expert Mariken van der Lubben of Amsterdam’s municipal health services told Reuters.

A positive test needed to be followed by a regular polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test to establish whether the detected infection was caused by a coronavirus.

The Dutch health service has ordered around 1,800 machines with plans to introduce them in test facilities across the country in coming months.

“It’s a promising technology, especially because of the speed, you can get a result within a minute,” Belgian virologist Marc Van Ranst said. “That’s a game changer, if you can make a rapid diagnosis or rule out an infection within a minute.”