HYDERABAD: THE Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has approved the modified technique of RT-PCR testing developed by Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) and has issued an advisory for its use in the country, considering its lesser cost and quick-turnaround time.
The new technique developed by CCMB, called as Dry Swab-Direct RT-PCR, is a simple variation of the existing gold standard RT-PCR method and has been found to have an overall concordance of 96.9 perc ent. This new technique can help scale up RT-PCR testing for Covid-19 twofold, with no new investment of resources.
The Dry Swab-Direct RT-PCR method involves collecting and transporting nasal swabs collected from a suspected Covid patient in a dry state as opposed to using the viral transport medium in the conventional RT-PCR testing method, making the transportation and handling of samples easy and less prone to spillage and spread of infection.
ICMR Director General, Dr Shekhar C Mande, said that the Dry-Swab Direct RT-PCR can help in ramping up Covid-19 testing capacity of the country in a short time frame.