ICMR Validates India- Made Diagnostic Platform For COVID-19 Testing

India has been testing over 1 lakh samples for COVID-19 daily for the past two days. To further augment this process, the Indian Council of Medical Research has validated TrueNet assays that can test over 12-48 samples daily. 

These TrueNet machines earlier could not conduct confirmatory tests. They have been used before to test for Tuberculosis.

According to an ICMR representative, most district hospitals already have these TrueNet machines and the new assays will be provided to them.

The platform comprises of a TrueNat machine, inbuiltRNA extraction system, RT-PCR chips, collection swabs and viral lysis medium (VLM).

A Single assay has a turnaround time of 35-50 minutes for 1-4 samples.