CoviSelf – India’s first self-use Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) kit – will take two minutes to carry out the test and results will be available in 15 minutes, the Pune-based firm that produced the kit said.
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) authorised the test kit on Wednesday.
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CoviSelf – India’s First Self-use Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) kit
CoviSelf, the country’s first self-use kit for at-home testing, will cost Rs 250 and provide findings in 15 minutes.
Within the next several weeks, the business hopes to produce 40-60 million kits each month and cover 95 per cent of India’s pin codes (through pharmacies).
“It takes two minutes to conduct the test and 15 minutes to get a result. It will be available by end of next week in more than seven lakh pharmacies and our online pharmacy partners across India. Our target is to reach 90 per cent pin code in India,” Sujeet Jain, Director of Mylab Discovery Solutions – the firm that produced the kit – was quoted by news agency ANI.
What If You Test Positive?
“This test is for self-use. If you test positive via this there is no need for an RT-PCR test, as per ICMR. Any adult can use this kit by reading our manual,” he added.
Only symptomatic individuals and immediate contacts of people who have tested positive in laboratory-conducted tests should use this kit, the ICMR has said.
“Indiscriminate testing is not advised,” the top medical body said while issuing detailed guidelines on the kit’s use.
What If You Test Negative?
It is advised that one should immediately test negative by RT-PCR.
“All symptomatic individuals who test negative by RAT should get themselves immediately tested by RT-PCR,” the ICMR added.
How To Use The CoviSelf Self-test Kits?
ICMR has issued an advisory on the use of these self-test kits
The strip appears like a standard home pregnancy test, according to Gautam Wankhede, clinical director of Mylab, and is coated with a mix of antibodies specific to the Sars-CoV-2 antigen.
“Presence of the antigen (a type of protein) will react with the antibodies on the strip and produce a change of colour,” he said.
One has to take a nasal swab, then mix it in the pre-filled extraction tube before pouring the sample on the test strip.
Either a single line or two lines will appear on the test strip within 15 minutes indicating if the sample has the presence of the Sars-CoV-2 antigen or not.
Mobile Application For CoviSelf Test
A mobile application (CoviSelf) has to be downloaded by each user, and users are advised to click a picture of the test strip after completing the test procedure with the same mobile phone, which has been used for downloading the app and user registration.
CoviSelf test results will have to be uploaded to that mobile app that can be downloaded from Google’s Play Store or the Apple Store, the ICMR said.
“The data in the app of your mobile phone will be centrally captured in a secure server, which is connected with the ICMR Covid-19 testing portal, where all data will be eventually stored. Patient confidentiality will be fully maintained. All individuals who test positive may be considered as true positives and no-repeat testing is required,” the advisory read.
“All users are advised to click a picture of the test strip after completing the test procedure with the same mobile phone,” the nodal body said
Data transmitted by the phone will be centrally captured in a secure server that is connected to the ICMR’s COVID-19 testing portal, where all data will be eventually stored.
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