ICMR Approves Self-testing Kit For Covid: Check Testing Procedure, Price

Indian Council for Medical Research has approved India's first home-based self-testing kit called CovidSelf for Covid-19, using the Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) method.

This kit is developed by Pune-based Mylab Discovery Solutions Ltd. The ICMR also issued an advisory stating that the CovidSelf kit should only be used on individuals having symptoms.

Availability

Mylab Director Sujeet Jain said CoviSelf will be available in India by end of next week in more than 7 lakh pharmacies and through its online pharmacy partners across the nation.

Though the current production capacity is 70 lakh test kits per week, the company is planning to increase this number to 1 crore tests per week.

Today, Mylab has taken an important and essential step to help India and the world fight the worst pandemic in the history of mankind. A step that will empower every Indian to fight this pandemic. We feel humbled to give India - its first Self-use Covid-19 test kit - CoviSelf. pic.twitter.com/5Y9VxEIEEV

— Mylab Discovery Solutions (@MylabSolutions) May 20, 2021

Price

CoviSelf kit will be priced at Rs 250 and it takes just 2 minutes to conduct the test and a maximum of 15 minutes to get the result.

Testing

All individuals who test positive through the RAT kit may be considered as true positives and no-repeat testing is required, said Mylab Director Sujeet Jain.

The test should be conducted as per the procedure described by the manufacturer in the user manual.

The home testing mobile app, which is available in Google play store and Apple store must be downloaded by all users.

The mobile app will guide the individual with the testing procedure and will provide a positive or negative test result.

All users are advised to click a picture of the test strip after completing the test procedure with the same mobile phone number which has been used for downloading the mobile app and user registration.

After symptomatic people who test negative should get an RT-PCR test done, the ICMR stated in the advisory.