Kerala-based Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Science and Technology has developed a low cost diagnostic test kit that can confirm in two hours the presence of COVID-19 infection. The diagnostic test kit developed by the Thiruvananthapuram institute can detect coronavirus in 10 minutes, and the sample to result time will be less than two hours.
A total of 30 samples can be tested in a single batch on a single machine, he said. “The confirmatory diagnostic test, which detects the N Gene of #SARS_COV_2 using reverse transcriptase loop-mediated amplification of viral nucleic acid, will be one of the world’s first few, if not the first of its kind in the world,” Vardhan tweeted.
The diagnostic kit comes at a time when India is looking to ramp up its testing for the contagious virus and has been procuring kits from outside the country. The Department of Science and Technology said the new diagnostic kit is cost-effective as each test will cost the lab Rs 1,000, which is less than the minimum cost of COVID-19 tests being carried out at present.
Known for its low-cost innovations like developing indigenous heart valves in the past, the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology is an Institute of National Importance under the Department of Science and Technology (S&T). It has been at the forefront in developing medical aids in fighting coronavirus.
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