New Delhi: The Indian Council of Medical Research has approved a rapid antigen test (RAT) kit to conduct the COVID-19 test at home.
The self-testing CoviSelf kit, also knowns as CoviSelfTM (PathoCatch) COVID-19 OTC Antigen LF device, is manufactured by the Pune-based Mylab Discovery Solutions Ltd.
ICMR approved the kit on Wednesday.
Issuing detailed guidelines on how and who can use RATs, ICMR said home testing by RAT is advised only in symptomatic individuals and immediate contacts of laboratory-confirmed positive cases.
"Indiscriminate testing is not advised."
"All symptomatic individuals who test negative by RAT should get themselves immediately tested by RT-PCR. This is especially important as the RATs are likely to miss few positive cases presenting with a low viral load," it said.
The research body said all RAT negative symptomatic individuals may be treated as suspect COVID-19 cases and advised them to follow the home isolation protocol while awaiting the RT-PCR test result.
According to the ICMR, the home test using RATs should be conducted according to the procedure detailed in an app, which can be downloaded from the Google play store and the Apple store.
"The mobile app is a comprehensive guide of the testing procedure and will provide a positive or negative test result to the patient. All users are advised to click a picture of the test strip after completing the test procedure with the same mobile phone," ICMR said.
The data from the mobile phone will be centrally captured in a secure server which is connected with the ICMR COVID-19 testing portal, where all data will be eventually stored.
The top medical body also assured that patient confidentiality will be fully maintained.
"With the approval for an antigen testing kit, we will cover whole spectrum of COVID-19 testing and leave no stone unturned to fight this pandemic," said Hasmukh Rawal, managing director, Mylab.
The kit will be available for orders immediately and will be priced around Rs 450, said the company. (UNI)