Home-testing kit for Covid-19: 10 things to know about self-testing kit CoviSelf

Only nasal swab will be required for this rapid antigen testing. (AFP)Premium
Only nasal swab will be required for this rapid antigen testing. (AFP)
 2 min read . Updated: 20 May 2021, 07:18 AM IST Edited By Sangeeta Ojha

The ICMR has made it clear that only symptomatic individuals and immediate contacts of people who tested positive in the laboratory should use the home test kit

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has given a green signal to a home-based rapid antigen testing (RAT) kit for COVID-19. The ICMR has made it clear that only symptomatic individuals and immediate contacts of people who tested positive in the laboratory should use the home test kit

"Home testing by RAT is advised only in symptomatic individuals and immediate contacts of laboratory confirmed positive cases. Indiscriminate testing is not advised," the county's apex health research body said.

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"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.

"All RAT negative symptomatic individuals may be treated as suspect COVID-19 cases and are advised to follow the ICMR/Ministry of Health home isolation protocol while awaiting the RT-PCR test result," the advisory stated.

Here is all you need to know about the home-based rapid antigen testing kit for Covid-19:

1) The home-based rapid antigen testing kit manufactured by Mylab Discovery Solutions Ltd, Pune, has been validated and approved by the ICMR.

2) Only nasal swab will be required for this rapid antigen testing.

3) The name of the kit is CoviSelfTM(PathoCatch) COVID-19 OTC Antigen LF device.

4) The kit comes with a pre-filled extraction tube, a sterile nasal swab, one test card, and a biohazard bag. The person undertaking the test will have to download the Mylab coviself app on their mobile phone.

5) The home testing mobile app is available in Google play store and Apple store and must be downloaded by all users.

6) The mobile app is a comprehensive guide of the testing procedure and will provide a positive or negative test result to the patient.

7) There will be two sections on the test card—the control section and the test section.

8) If the bar shows up only at the control section ‘C’, the result is negative, and if the bar appears on both the control section and test (T) section, the test is positive.

9) According to a report in Hindustan Times, the test kit will be available in the market in about a week’s time and will be priced at ₹250 per kit.

10) A positive test will take about 5 to 7 minutes, and a negative result will take 15 minutes max, Hindustan Times quoted Hasmukh Rawal, managing director, Mylab Discovery Solutions.

All users are advised to click a picture of the test strip after completing the test procedure with the same mobile phone which has been used for downloading the mobile app and user registration.






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