India has low cost testing kit in the world for Covid 19

According to Dr V. Ravi, Head of neurovirology at NIMHANS, Bangalore. “It’s fast, much cheaper and you don’t need exp­ertise in doing it.  You can’t take swabs from thousands of people who are quarantined.  You can screen their blood rapidly and if it is positive, you can take a swab immediately,” he says. Antibody tests haven’t been widely used for respiratory viruses, but since SARS Cov-2 is a new virus, people bel­ieve it will have some role in detecting exposure at this stage.  As of April 1, around 126 government-run labs were functional and 51 private labs given the go-ahead for dia­gnostic PCR tests.  With these tests, vir­ologists look for a certain sequence that defines the virus by amplifying the nuc­leic acids that are in the virus.  Many private labs have started work and their large networks, it is expected, will help further the reach of testing. “So far, sample collection has been done from homes of patients....