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WORLD’s most affordable COVID-19 testing kit launched

Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and Minister of State for HRD Sanjay Dhotre have launched a low-cost COVID-19 test kit developed by Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. It uses an alternative testing method and was launched in Delhi on Wednesday, July 15. The test kit named Corosure, was e-launched after it has been approved by ICMR and DCGI. It will be available by authorised labs. The test, Corosure, is said to be the world’s most affordable RT-PCR-based Covid-19 diagnostic kit, the Hindustan Times reported. The Indian Institute of Technology in  New Delhi launched its low-cost testing kit commercially. COROSURE will be available for 500 Indian rupees ($6.6), compared to the existing testing kits with a charge of around $60. “This technology should change the paradigm of COVID testing in the country, both in terms of scale and cost … Two million tests [per month] at an unbeatable price,” V Ramgopal Rao, Director of the institute, said in a tweet prior to the online launching event. He hoped the new testing kit would help India fight the virus as the nation with nearly 1.3 billion population reported a total of 936,181 confirmed cases of coronavirus, with 24,309 deaths. The total number of cases in the country includes 319,840 active cases and 592,032 cured/discharged/migrated cases. The Health Ministry on Tuesday confirmed that 86% of the total cases are from ten states. Of these, 50% are from the western state of Maharashtra (267,665 cases, 10,695 deaths) and the southern state of Tamil Nadu (147,324 cases, 2,099 deaths).

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