The partnership between QRX and Healthians for providing Rapid PCR Tests for COVID will help in taking the testing to the doorstep of the common man and commercial business hubs through collection centres as well mobile van testing facilities.
With the onset of Omnicron worldwide, the regulations have intensified for travellers in the country. To fulfil this need for rapid testing of COVID-19 across the country, QRX and Healthians, India’s largest health testing network with presence in 130 cities, have joined hands in procuring and maintaining the applicable licence for Rapid PCR tests based on RT Lamp technology (called SARAL TEST) provided through the labs and testing facilities of Healthians. The test provides instant credible results in 30 minutes and is ICMR approved.
The partnership between QRX and Healthians for providing Rapid PCR Tests for COVID will help in taking the testing to the doorstep of the common man and commercial business hubs through collection centres as well mobile van testing facilities. QRX and Healthians will jointly partner in terms of setting up the infrastructure for the testing mobile vans and operate them.
Deepak Sahni, Founder and CEO, Healthians, said “With the imminent scare of the new coronavirus variant, faster turnaround time of COVID testing would spell huge benefit to the masses. We are happy and proud that we are yet again at the forefront of launching a service that would not only support the government’s efforts in building an efficient infrastructure for COVID testing but also be very useful for the masses to get tested conveniently.”
The Saral Test for COVID detection uses the RT Lamp Technology that’s the latest and quicker method of testing for COVID-19. LAMP stands for Loop-mediated Isothermal Amplification, is an assay that can be used for SARS-COV-2 viral RNA detection. Reverse-transcription LAMP (RT-LAMP) allows for quicker analysis of genetic material than traditional PCR and is proven to be successful in the detection of the COVID-19 virus. This test is ideal for point of need/ care assays for its simplicity of performance coupled with its highspecificity and sensitivity. The sample required is saliva, nasal or oral swab and it allows for quicker turnaround time, reliable and cost-effective testing. Whereas a traditional SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR test can take around 2 to 3 hours, Saral Test (RT-LAMP) takes around 30 minutes. So the Saral Test (RT-LAMP) is a fast, simple and inexpensive technique with high accuracy making it a potential SARS-CoV-2 detection alternative to the traditional RT-PCR Test.
Mohammed Sirajuddin, Co-Founder QRx said “The Saral Test SARS-Cov-2-RTAMP kit has 100% specificity & 97% Sensitivity including for the Omnicron variant. It has the advantage of allowing for a visual readout of the result by naked eye in 30 minutes only. Further it has low instrumentation cost. These comparative advantages coupled with the wide reach of Healthians: India’s leading digital Lab will enable us to jointly serve the Nation across the length & breadth of country via large scale, low cost , quick testing with gold standards of accuracy. We also have some other innovative products lined up which will also be rolled out subsequently via this partnership”
Due to the low space requirements and simple lab infrastructure required for conducting this test, Rapid PCR Testing Centres (SARAL TEST) will be set up at airports, corporate and government enterprise offices, railway stations, and metro stations and it will be offered at affordable prices.
With international arrivals requiring declaring of their 14-day travel history and valid negative RT-PCR test reports before embarking on their journey to India, the need for quicker COVID-9 testing is the need of the hour. Even people travelling out of India would need to procure negative RT-PCR test report for travelling to another country. Apart from travel related testing, the country needs to prepare for a more efficient and quicker testing infrastructure and be ready for any exigency.
Both the partners will ensure that Saral Test is available in as many states as possible by making the test available across all existing collection centres of Healthians in India.
Source: Business World
