The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Wednesday approved the self-use Rapid Antigen Test for Covid-19 developed by Mylab Discovery Solutions. The test is developed in India and is named as CoviSelf.

Pune’s Mylab have said that the test takes two minutes and the result appears in 15 mins. They said that any adult can easily use this kit to test themselves.

ANI quoted the director of Mylab Discovery Solutions Sujeet Jain as saying, “It takes 2 minutes to conduct test & 15 minutes to get a result. It will be available by end of next week in more than seven lakh pharmacies and our online pharmacy partners across India. Our target is to reach 90% pin code in India.”

“This test is for self-use. If you test positive via this there is no need for RT-PCR test, as per ICMR. Any adult can use this kit by reading our manual,” he added.

Only symptomatic individuals and immediate contacts of people who have tested positive in laboratory-conducted tests should use this kit, the ICMR has said. “Indiscriminate testing is not advised,” the top medical body said while issuing detailed guidelines on the kit’s use.

“All symptomatic individuals who test negative by RAT should get themselves immediately tested by RT-PCR,” the ICMR added.

The ICMR said the home testing mobile app is available in Google play store and Apple store and must be downloaded by all users. 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 which has been used for downloading the mobile app and user registration.

Each kit, priced at Rs 250, will be provided with all testing materials, instructions to use (IFU) leaflet, and a biohazard bag to safely dispose of it after testing. The test is designed to be done using a nasal swab (not the deep nasopharyngeal swab) to reduce the discomfort.