Mylab Discovery Solutions has created India’s first self-use Covid-19 test kit. The kit will allow people to carry out tests at home and provide results in 15 minutes. Mylab had been working for the last six months to indigenously develop the technology. The product has been approved by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR). However, ICMR suggests that all symptomatic individuals who test negative using a RAT should get themselves immediately tested using an RT-PCR test.
The CoviSelf Covid-19 antigen test kit comprises of a pre-filled extraction tube, sterile nasal swab, test card, biohazard bag, and instructional manual. If the Control Line C and Test Line T appear in the cartridge it indicates the presence of novel coronavirus antigen and a positive result is confirmed. If only Control Line C appears but the Test Line T does not appear, this indicates that the novel coronavirus antigen has not been detected and the result is negative. It usually takes up to 15-20 minutes to confirm the negative result.
The rapid antigen test (RAT), CoviSelf, can be used by symptomatic individuals and immediate contacts of laboratory-confirmed positive cases. The test can be purchased without a prescription over the counter from local pharmacies and online available at just Rs 250. CoviSelf will help reduce the testing burden on diagnostic labs and the time taken to detect Covid-19 infections.
The kits come with a unique ID that has to be linked to a mobile app which will provide a positive or negative test result to the patient. Users have to click a picture of the test strip after completing the test procedure using the app. This data is captured and connected with the ICMR Covid-19 testing portal, where the data will be stored. This provides regulators easy traceability and tracking of Covid-19 positive cases.
Mylab Discovery had launched the country’s first RT-PCR test a year ago and then developed its own RAT test kit. The company currently has the capacity to make 70 lakh tests per week at its plant in Lonavala and plans to increase it to one crore tests per week within two weeks.
