India’s First At-Home Covid-19 Self-Test Kit Is Here

As the country battles a severe second wave of COVID-19 and faces a tremendous shortage of healthcare professionals and equipment, the State is exploring home-testing kits for the virus.

Rapid Antigen Kits to conduct COVID test at home have been approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research, the main body dealing with the fight against the pandemic.

Aptly named ‘CoviSelf’, the self-use test can be used by symptomatic individuals and immediate contacts of confirmed cases as per ICMR guidelines without the need for sample collection by a healthcare professional.

The CoviSelf COVID-19 OTC Antigen LF device is a product of Pune-based Mylab Discovery Solutions Ltd. According to the Times Of India.

, the test kit comes with a pre-filled extraction tube, a sterile nasal swab, one test card, and a biohazard bag. To use the test kit, the individual will first have to download a home-testing mobile app called ‘Mylab Coviself’ from Google Play Store and Apple Store.

The app provides complete guidelines on how to use the testing kit and how to read the test result. The home test should be conducted according to the process detailed in the same.

The app will accurately collect the COVID test and upload it to the ICMR COVID-19 testing portal where all data will be eventually compiled.

The testing kit is expected to provide relief for the country’s heavily burdened medical infrastructure and testing labs.

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