IIT Hyderabad develops low cost Covid-19 Test Kit that can deliver results in 20 minutes

A team of researchers at Indian Institute of technology(IIT), Hyderabad has developed a COVID-19 Test Kit that can deliver results within 20 minutes.

The researchers claimed that the kit is first of its kind and is not based on the Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction(RT-PCR), which is the method being used currently for the coronavirus testing purpose.

A patent has been filed for the test kit which has been developed at a cost of Rs. 550 and is expected to be reduced by Rs. 300 when taken to mass production.

The team has conducted the clinical trials at ESIC Medical College and Hospital, Hyderabad and has sought an approval from the Indian Council of Medical Research(ICMR).

Prof. Shiv Govind Singh of Electrical Engineering Department of IIT Hyderabad has said that the developed COVID-19 kit can deliver the results in 20 minutes for both symptomatic and asymptomatic patients.

The economical test kit is easy to carry around and that the tests can be now performed at the respective places. The kit uses an alternative method of testing as we have identified a specific sequence of conserved regions of coronavirus gerome, he added.

IIT Hyderabad is the second academic institution in the country after IIT Delhi to come with the testing kit for COVID-19.

IIT Delhi has developed a testing kit with real time PCR based diagnostic testing which has obtained IMCR approval.

The test kits being used currently are “probe based”, while the kit developed by IIT Hyderabad uses a “probe free” method, which reduces the testing cost without affecting the accuracy of the result.

India now has become the 6th worst-hit nation in the world by Covid-19 after it surpassed Italy on Saturday.

On June 6th, India recorded a single-day spike of 9,887 new cases of Covid-19, drifting the nationwide tally to 2,32,675.

According to MoHFW, the country's total death toll due to coronavirus has now risen to 6,642 with a record single-day increase of 294 deaths in the last 24 hours.