In Tamil Nadu, the active COVID-19 caseload remained under 50,000 for the eighth consecutive day on Wednesday. The total infection has reached nearly 5.2 lakh while the recoveries have gone up to more than 4.64 lakh.<br />'' <br />''Meanwhile, the Madras IIT said, its team has developed a novel method to detect the COVID-19-causing virus in a person in just five minutes.<br />''The IIT, Madras has claimed that its new method to test for the SARSCoV2 virus in a person that caused COVID-19 disease can be detected in just five minutes from his saliva.<br />'' <br />''It is developed jointly with an US-based health care diagnostics platform called Ricovr Health care. The project has won the 'Ignition Grants' Award from the US-India Science and Technology Endowment Fund established jointly by both the countries.<br />'' <br />''The new diagnostic process is said to be capable of sensing active viral particles on the spot without needing a specialized laboratory.<br />'' <br />''<span style="color: #222222;">The IIT says the innovative detection technique and the simple use of saliva will help bring a cost-effective and user-friendly device for making COVID-19 tests economical and reliable.</span><br />