What Is The Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) Kit For COVID-19 Self Testing

RAT Kit COVID-19 Self Testing: The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has released an advisory related to COVID-19 and has approved India's first self-use Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) kit for COVID-19 which is made by Pune-based Mylab Discovery Solutions.

The testing kit will be available for Rs 250 per pack and will be easy to use without any expert help.

𝐈𝐂𝐌𝐑 𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐞𝐝 𝐀𝐝𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐂𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐃-𝟏𝟗 𝐇𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐓𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐑𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐝 𝐀𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐠𝐞𝐧 𝐓𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐬 (𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐬). For more details visit https://t.co/dI1pqvXAsZ @PMOIndia #ICMRFIGHTSCOVID19 #IndiaFightsCOVID19 pic.twitter.com/membV3hPbX

— ICMR (@ICMRDELHI) May 19, 2021

COVID-19 Self Testing: Only Nasal Swab Needed

Only the nasal swab of the patient will be required for the Rapid Antigen Testing (RAT) and the testing should be conducted as described in the user manual provided by the manufacturer. No repeat testing is required after the RAT test. According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), all the individuals who test positive through the kit may be considered true positives.

Should Be Used Only On Symptomatic Patients

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) cautioned people in its advisory against indiscriminate home testing using the RAT kit and said that it should only be used on people who show the symptoms of COVID-19 and on the people who came in immediate contact with the laboratory-confirmed positive patients.

In its advisory, the ICMR aid that the individuals who test negative by the RAT test should immediately get themselves tested through the RT-PCR test, as the home testing kit is likely to miss a few positive cases with a lower viral load in the body.

Relatively cheaper, and connected to an app

The home testing kit is relatively cheaper and will be connected with a mobile app available both on the Google play store and Apple store. All the users of the RAT test must download the app on their phones.

Patients will receive a comprehensive testing procedure guide as well as their reports after the testing on the mobile app. This is done to make data of all the patients tested positive or negative through the kit so that there is cohesiveness in the official COVID-19 data throughout the country.

All the users of the RAT kit are advised to click a picture of the testing strip after completing their testing procedure. This should be done with the same mobile phone that has been used to download the app and has the user registration.

Gives result in 30 minutes

According to The CEO of DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance, a public charity investing in building health research framework and biomedical sciences, the RAT testing kit gives the result in 30 minutes and will allow a faster diagnosis without a laboratory examination. The test can be done in many conditions like before a patient goes to see a doctor, which will also protect the doctor from being exposed to the virus.