India’s first self-test kit, CoviSelf Covid-19 Antigen LF device, which allows you to test yourself for coronavirus right at your home, will soon hit the market. To cost Rs 250, the kit will be available over the counter and not need any prescription. Approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the kit uses the Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT) method for testing.
Manufactured by Pune-based Mylab Discovery Solutions, the kit is likely to reduce the pressure on the overburdened labs and delay in tests and reports.
Mylab Discovery Solutions’ Managing Director Hasmukh Rawal said that a positive test will take five to seven minutes and a negative result will take a maximum 15 minutes. “We currently have a capacity of 70 lakh test kits per week and will enhance it to 1 crore test kits by early-June,” he said.
At a press conference, Dr Balram Bhargava, DG, ICMR, said, “The testing by the kit is advised for use only on symptomatic individuals and immediate contacts of laboratory-confirmed positive cases.”
Incidentally, the company had last year also given India its first RT-PCR Test kit which is now commonly used for Covid-19 tests.
All symptomatic individuals who test negative by RAT should get themselves immediately tested by RT-PCRRapid antigen tests are considered less sensitive than lab-based RT-PCR tests. This means that some results from the RAT may show false negatives – wrongly indicating that the infection is absent. However, experts believe that accuracy of the tests increase if the viral load is high.
Dr Bhargava said that users will have to download the home testing mobile application available on Google Play Store and Apple store.
“The mobile app is a comprehensive guide of the testing procedure and will provide a positive or negative test result to the patient,” Dr Bhargava said. “All 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 mobile app and user registration.”
The research body has also asked residents to take the test according to the user manual provided by the manufacturer and strictly follow the guidelines on the disposal of the kits. Users can download the manual for Mylab Discovery Solutions test kits, CoviSelf.