Launched by a startup for $3 بسعر

India's first home test to detect "Covid-19"

The test involves a nasal swab and a QR code to be connected to a mobile application that gives the result in 15 minutes.

AFP

A small Indian start-up hopes that its home test for COVID-19, the first in the South Asian country, will help the authorities improve their ability to monitor the spread of the virus among the 1.3 billion people.

The test "CoVeSelf" was launched earlier this month, and is the first approved home test for India, which is slowly emerging from a powerful second wave that has pushed hospitals and crematoria to their maximum capacity, with about 30 million infections so far and more than 350 thousand deaths.

But many experts consider the true numbers to be much higher, and attribute this to a lack of testing and inaccurate recording of causes of death.

Maylab Discovery Solutions, which also makes polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests to detect HIV infections, says that making the 250-rupee ($3.40) CoveSelf test widely accessible would reduce the risk of HIV infection. Decompressing overworked laboratories and improving casualty tracking capabilities.

The test involves a nasal swab and a QR code to be connected to a mobile application that gives the result in 15 minutes.

At the company's factory, located in the western Indian town of Lonavala, health-compliant employees carry out thorough checks on the ingredients of the tests, before sending them to pharmacies across the country.

But the test is only available to smartphone users, so its impact may be limited, especially with the spread of the epidemic in rural India, where mobile phone networks are weak and Internet coverage is low.

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