New Delhi: The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has given its approval for self-use Rapid Antigen Test for Covid-19 developed by molecular diagnostics company. The indigenously developed test has been named as CoviSelf (PathoCatch).
As per per an advisory issued by the ICMR, the test has been designed for home testing and is advisable for symptomatic patients and also for people who came in contact of infected patients. The advisory also stated that people who test positive through the kit may be considered as true positives and the symptomatic people who test negative should get tested by RTPCR.
It was advised to all the users to click a picture of the test strip after completing the test procedure using the same mobile number which was used to used for registration and downloading of the app. The advisory said that the app’s data will be stored in a secure server which is connected to the ICMR’s testing portal.
According to the Pune-based company which developed the test said that the mid-nasal swab test will provide the test results in 15 minutes. The self-use rapid test will help in faster testing and diagnosis of Covid suspects.
An official of the company said that the new self-use test will also help in checking the spread of the coronavirus as people would be in better position to test themselves faster and positive patients can then isolate themselves for treatment.
He further said that most of the western countries have allowed the self-test to break the chain. “The Mylab’s test is AI-powered. Users will be able to submit its report immediately to ICMR directly for better traceability,” he concluded.
