Italy is testing a coronavirus swab which gives a result in 12 minutes and costs only £11.
The swab, manufactured in South Korea, has been tested 1,000 times in the northern region of Veneto and may soon be used in Italian airports to screen tourists for the infection, The Times reports.
"It looks reliable and we hope to get it into use in Veneto by the autumn," Francesca Russo, who runs the region's Covid-19 response team, told the newspaper.
Officials have recorded only two false results while trialling the test, which is called Standard Q Covid-19.
A typical coronavirus test can take at least 24 hours to return a result, while the swab being tested in Italy provides a result within 30 minutes.
The test comes with a substance containing coronavirus antibodies and if the sample provided contains Covid-19 particles, the antibodies will bind to them and a colour strip turns red to show someone is infected.
A spokesman for the Lazio region, which includes Rome, said the swab could be used to test passengers arriving at Fiumicino airport.
"This test would be perfect at the airport - you could test 200 passengers getting off a plane at once," he said.
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Italy has almost 245,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases and the death toll stands at 35,058.
The country was one of the first to impose a strict lockdown amid the coronavirus outbreak which started in February.
All public gatherings were banned and movement was restricted across all regions under the nationwide measures for its 60 million people.
