Health

ICMR approves low cost COVID19 testing device developed by IIT Kharagpur

The machine costs less than Rs 5000 to make and the test-kits would cost about Rs 500, as informed by the IIT Kharagpur researchers who have developed it

The researchers at IIT Kharagpur have developed a low-cost testing device for Covid-19. The new portable device was approved by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) after testing with patient samples showed an accuracy level slightly lower than the gold standard RT-PCR method at a fraction of the cost.

“The machine costs less than Rs 5000 to make and the test-kits would cost about Rs 500” as informed by the IIT Kharagpur researchers who have developed it.

COVIRAP will be very useful in the rural areas as it requires only minimal training but the viral RNA still needs a laboratory to be extracted. It is very similar in function to a “paper-strip” based pregnancy kits where two lines assert a positive. In COVIRAP the emergence of two-colored lines will confirm the presence of the virus.

This is a major breakthrough as India is encouraging indigenous development of Covid 19 related infrastructure like masks, PPE-kits, and sanitizers. Excessive testing is the only way to contain the virus until the development of the vaccine. RT-PCR labs are expensive to establish in contrary to this low-cost testing device.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic in India, researchers are trying to build such low-cost testing mechanisms but none could obtain the approval of ICMR for commercial usage. This is a fruitful development in a positive direction.

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Pragya Mishra

Senior columnist with interest in economy and government policies.

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