Kerala institute develops low-cost Covid-19 test kit that can give results in 2 hours
In a significant development for COVID-19 diagnosis and testing in India, a reputed medical institute in Kerala has been successful in developing a low-cost diagnostic testing kit that can give results of the viral infection in two hours. A release from the Union Ministry of Science and Technology said Thursday that a team of clinicians and scientists at the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST) in Thiruvananthapuram has been able to come up with a test kit which is deemed highly specific for SARS-CoV-2 N-gene and can detect two regions of the gene, which will ensure that the test does not fail even if one region of the viral gene undergoes mutation during its current spread. The test detects the N gene of SARS-COV2 using reverse transcriptase loop-mediated amplification of viral nucleic acid (RT-LAMP). Tests approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) at the NiV, Alappuzha have shown 100% accuracy and match with test results conducte...