CoviSelf: India's first self-use RAT kit gets ICMR approval

Testing of Covid-19 will now be possible sitting at home – in a matter of 15 minutes!

Hours after the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) gave its approval, the Pune-based Mylab Discovery Solutions is ready to roll out India’s first self-use Rapid test for Covid-19.

The test is developed in India and is named as CoviSelf.

Last year, Mylab gave India its first RT-PCR test.

The detection kit is priced at Rs 250.

The company will start shipping out tests within a few days.

Mylab's current production capacity is 70 lakh tests per week and plans to increase its capacity to 1 crore tests per week within 14 days.

Now, any citizen can test for Covid-19 themselves, isolate and seek treatment quickly.

Also read: ICMR approves Covid-19 home testing kit using rapid antigen testing

The self-use test can be used by symptomatic individuals and immediate contacts of confirmed cases as per ICMR guidelines.

Users of this test will not need sample collection by a healthcare professional.

This will ease pressure on already overburdened testing labs and reduce delays in testing, which is more than 72 hours in some parts of the country.

With CoviSelf, Mylab aims to make testing reach the doorstep of every Indian to help them fight the second and any subsequent waves of pandemic.

Early detection can help save thousands of lives and significantly reduce burden on hospitals. The test can be purchased without a prescription from local pharmacies and online channel partners.

Hasmukh Rawal, Managing Director of Mylab Discovery Solutions said: “This is the biggest crisis our country has ever faced. Time and again, we have tried to observe carefully what our country needs and developed solutions with social benefit at the core. With CoviSelf, we are sharing the power of testing early with the citizens. It will save thousands of lives. For India, we will make millions of kits available at a fraction of the cost of such kits in the United States.“.

Each kit will be provided with all testing materials, instructions to use (IFU) leaflet and a biohazard bag to safely dispose of after testing. The test is designed to be done using nasal swab (not the deep nasopharyngeal swab) to reduce the discomfort.

Also read: Karnataka Home Minister indicates stricter implementation of lockdown measures in days to come

CoviSelf will provide results in 15 min and people who test positive should immediately isolate so that they do not infect others and quickly contact a healthcare provider. Those who test negative and continue to experience Covid-like symptoms should seek follow up care from their healthcare provider.

Every pack has a unique QR code, which has to be entered along with test outcome to get a report on the App.

“Most western countries have allowed self-test for their citizens and consider it as a powerful tool to break the chain. This easy-to-use test combines with Myab’s AI-powered mobile app so that a user can know his/her positive status, submit the result to ICMR directly for traceability, and know what to do next in either case of result. We are sure this small step will be a big leap in mitigating the second and subsequent waves,” said Sujit Jain, Director at Mylab Discovery Solutions.