The dry swab-based direct RT-PCR method of COVID-19 testing, developed by CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) and approved by the ICMR, can now be adopted in testing labs of the country.

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This method is easier to carry out than the current procedures, and can ramp up testing by 2-3 fold using the current infrastructure in the testing labs, the CCMB said on 3rd May. It has offered to train ICMR-approved government as well as private COVID-19 testing centres to help them adopt this method. It aims to train 500 testing centres across India, starting this week. Most of these sessions will be online to reach out to centres out of Hyderabad.

This method needs no Viral Transport Medium for sending samples from sample collection centres to testing centres. This requires much lesser sample packing and no contamination between samples. In this method, the RNA isolation steps have been replaced by a single-step addition of an easily available reagent. Extract from this step can be directly used for RT-PCR without compromising on the quality of results. These make the tests faster, cheaper, safer for the healthcare workers, and increase throughput with existing resources and setup, the CCMB said.

The technology has been licensed to various healthcare companies such as Apollo Hospitals, Meril Life, Spice Health, and Capital Health Pvt Ltd to manufacture and commercialise these testing kits. Many other industry partners are expected to come on board soon. "India is struggling with a steep surge in COVID-19 cases. The testing centres are overwhelmed with the number of samples that they have to test. It is an absolute need to increase our testing capacity within the existing setup. We are positive that the dry swab based direct RT-PCR method will help in the cause immensely", said Dr Rakesh Mishra, Advisor, CCMB.