The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has approved three Rapid Antigen Test Kits for testing for Covid at home. It can only be used by those who are symptomatic and those who came in immediate contact with the laboratory-confirmed covid positive cases.
One of these kits is Coviself. MyLab discovery Solutions Ltd, Pune, has manufactured, and the other is Pan Bio Covid 19 Antigen Rapid Test device discovered by Chicago-based Abbott Rapid Diagnostics. The third kit is CoviFind from Meril DiagnosticsPvt. Ltd., Vapi (Gujarat), India. All these have been cleared following the procedure of diagnostic kit registration in India.
The test kit of MyLab Discovery Solutions Ltd, Pune, has started shipping. Soon it will start the shipping of kits on Flipkart and also at other online and offline pharmacies. The test kit costs Rs.250, and it will evaluate your results within 15 minutes.
At present, MyLab Discovery Solutions can produce 70 lakh test kits per week, and very soon, it will increase it to 1 crore test kits.
ICMR has given a detailed guideline on the use of these kits. It has made it clear that only those who show symptoms for covid 19 can use these kits, and those who came in contact with a covid positive person can use this kit for testing. Haphazard use of these kits is not allowed. Using these kits, if an individual comes positive, they will be considered positive, and no more repeat testing is needed. And if anyone tests negative, they are advised to do an RtPCR test for confirmation.
The home test should be done by following the process as given in the application downloaded from the Google Play store. This mobile application is an extensive guide of the whole testing process and will offer a positive or a negative test result. Every user is advised to take a picture of the test strip after completing the whole test process with the same phone.
Then the data is captured centrally from the phone in a safe server which is then connected to the ICMR covid 19 testing portal, where finally all data is stored. The confidentiality will be maintained as per the Indian medical association.
The test kits are expected to decrease the pressure of the testing laboratories. All these kits have undergone rigorous testing and adhere to the norms of the drug license registration process.
