India has developed a Made-in-India test kit for coronavirus.

A press release by the Mylab Discovery Solutions and an article by the All India Radio (AIR) confirms the claim.

A press release by the Mylab Discovery Solutions and an article by the All India Radio (AIR) confirms the claim.Pune-based molecular diagnostics company Mylab Discovery Solutions Pvt Ltd has developed first made-in-India test kit for COVID-19 in a record time of six weeks. The kit, Mylab PathoDetect COVID-19 Qualitative PCR kit, is the first one to receive commercial approval from the Indian FDA/ Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO).

So far the Indian government has been sourcing millions of testing kits from Germany to facilitate testing to diagnose Coronavirus patients. However, the dependency on foreign kits has been troublesome and supply is getting blocked due to grounded airlines. Some other key problems that India was facing were limited testing facilities and expensive testing kits. However, this new kit would cost nearly one-fourth of the current procurement cost, and is faster as it screens and detects the infection within 2.5 hours as compared with over 7 hours by others.

As of March 26, 2020, India has reported 640 positive cases of the coronavirus and 17 people have died so far.

The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to a lot of potentially dangerous misinformation. For reliable advice on COVID-19 including symptoms, prevention and available treatment, please refer to the World Health Organisation or your national healthcare authority.