In news- The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) recently approved the country’s first Covid-19 self-testing kit for home use.
About Coviself-
- CoviSelf has been developed by MyLab Discovery Solutions, a Pune-based molecular company.
- It uses a rapid antigen test, in which a nasal swab sample is tested for the virus and gives results within 15 minutes.
- Anyone can collect their own nasal sample and test it for SARS-CoV-2.
- Taking the test takes hardly two minutes and costs Rs 250.
- ICMR has advised this test only for those who have symptoms or are high-risk contacts of positive patients and need to conduct a test at home.
- If positive, the person will be considered Covid-19 positive and will not require RT-PCR as a confirmatory test.
- If a person tests negative but has symptoms, he or she has to undergo an RT-PCR test.
- This test is synced with a mobile app, CoviSelf, which will help directly feed the positive case’s report on the ICMR portal.
- This test is not advised for general screening in public places of hawkers, show owners, or commuters.
- A person is positive for Covid-19 if two lines appear on the testing card – on marker ’t’ for the testing line, and ‘c’ for quality control line.
- If the person is negative, a single line appears on marker ‘c’.
- If the result takes more than 20 minutes to show, or if a line does not flash across marker ‘c’, then the test is invalid.
- A rapid-result all-in-one test kit produced by Lucira Health was given emergency use authorization in the US in November, 2020.
- Similar kits have been approved in Europe and South Korea too.
Source: TOI
