Mumbai: Pune-based virologist Minal Dakhave Bhosale led from the front to create India’s first testing kit for coronavirus even when she was in the last stage of her pregnancy.
The efforts of Bhosale and her 10-member team at Mylab Discovery in Pune paid off when they delivered the testing kit in a record time of six weeks.
Bhosale gave birth to a girl just a day before the kit was submitted to the authorities concerned for evaluation and approval.
“It was like giving birth to two babies,” news agency PTI quoted Bhosale as saying.
The virologist said both the journeys, which happened in parallel, were not without challenges. “There were complications in the pregnancy while work on the test kit was on. The baby was delivered through caesarean,” she said.
Bhosale said she felt that it was the right time to serve the people to help them in combating the coronavirus threat. “I had been working for five years in this field and if I don’t work in emergency situations when my services are needed the most, then what is the use?”
Though the virologist was not able to visit the office due to the pregnancy, she guided her team working on the project at Mylab.
“The strong bonds forged with the team over the years and their support made it possible,” she said.
The COVID-19 testing kit delivered by Bhosale’s team will reduce the time taken for delivering a result to 2.5 hours from the prevalent practice of eight hours. The test kit will cost Rs 1,200, a quarter of the Rs 4,500 per kit that the government has been spending on testing so far.
