COVID KAVACH: India’s first indigenous ELISA Test Kit for COVID-19

The National Institute of Virology has indigenously developed antibody detection kit for COVID-19. The kit will play significant role in surveillance of COVID-19 infection.

Highlights

• The kit is capable of testing 90 samples in a single run of 2.5 hours. 
• The kit was jointly developed by ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) and NIV. 
• The kit validated the indigenous IGG ELISA test called “COVID KAVACH ELISA”.
• The kit will test the presence of IGG antibodies in the sample. 
• It is sensitive, cost-effective and rapid. 
• The major advantage of the kit is that it requires minimal bio-safety and bio-security requirements as compared to that of the RT-PCR test. 
• RT-PCR is Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction. 
• The test measures the amount of specific RNA.
• It is to be noted that the ICMR cancelled about half a million COVID-19 antibody test kits from China as they were found to be giving inaccurate results.
• The Gujarat based Zydus Cadila is to produce the kits on a large scale. 
• The NIV is to conduct the technology transfer to the company. 
• This is a huge leap in the progress of India’s fight against COVID-19 as India is importing most of its diagnostic materials.

Significance

• The kit is also capable of performing ELISA-based testing. 
• ELISA is Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay. 
• ELISA is used to detect antibodies for a wide range of infections, especially antibody of HIV.