India’s first Rapid electronic Covid-19 RNA Test kit that allows self-testing at home called ‘COVIHOME’ has been developed by a research group at the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad. The kit has been validated by the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology and can be used to check for Covid-19 trace at the comfort of home.
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About the test kit:
- This test kit can produce results within 30 minutes for both symptomatic and asymptomatic patients.
- The major benefit of this testing kit is that it does not require RT-PCR (Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction), an expert human resource, and a BSL 2 lab facility for the extraction of RNA, so it has the potential for one to take the test at home without expert supervision.
- The validation report confirmed the kit’s efficiency at 94.2 per cent, Sensitivity 91.3 per cent and Specificity 98.2 per cent.
- While a test currently costs around Rs 400, the developers say that mass production of the testing kit will help to reduce the cost to around Rs 300 per test.