Bhubaneswar: The National Institute of Virology, Pune has successfully developed the first indigenous anti-body detection kit for COVID-19.
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan in a series of tweets on Sunday said the kit can test a large number of samples in a short time at any clinic, hospital or health centre. It has the capacity of testing 90 samples in 2.5 hours, he added.
The kit, which is cost-effective and sensitive, will help the health experts move to next level of medical care at a fast pace. Besides, it will play a critical role in surveillance of proportion of population exposed to SARSCoV2 infection, the Minister said.
The kit, which was developed in a month by the national institute, was validated at two sites in Mumbai.
