Feluda paper strip test kit to be available in 8 metro cities: Full list

Identifying the first week of December for the rollout, the fast and cheap paper-based Covid-19 test kit will be available in Apollo labs in the national capital, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Kolkata, Pune, and Ahmedabad, reports Hindustan Times.

The Apollo group of hospitals has 100 clinics and 75 labs across the country, which will progressively adopt the new technology for testing.

The Feluda Covid test kit, which has been marketed as "TataMD’s CHECK", was launched by the Tata group in collaboration with the Apollo group of hospitals on 19 November.

All you need to know about Feluda paper-strip kit

The Feluda coronavirus test, based on CRISPR-Cas9 technology for diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2, has been approved by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) for use in the country.

The paper-strip uses cutting-edge CRISPR gene-editing technology to identify and target the genetic material of SARS-CoV-2, the deadly virus that causes Covid-19 in less than an hour.

Named after a detective in a famous Indian novel series, Feluda resembles a home pregnancy paper-strip test and delivers results in around 40 minutes.

No further RT-PCR based confirmation is required for samples that are confirmed as positive or negative by the CRISPR SARS-CoV-2 test, an advisory issued by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) earlier had stated.

The test has been developed by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research's (CSIRs) Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), Delhi, and has been validated by the National Centre for Biological Sciences and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.

The price has not been released yet, but earlier reports said it could cost around ₹500, which is almost a fifth of what a PCR test costs in the national capital.