The Tata
Group on Monday launched a new COVID-19 test kit, which it said will detect the
infection much faster than the standard RT-PCR tests currently the gold standard
for testing.

The new nasal
swab test, developed by Tata in collaboration with the government, is also much
more accurate than the rapid antigen test used by the government, news agency
Reuters quoted the ministry of science and technology saying in September.

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Tata’s
healthcare arm, Tata Medical and Diagnostics, will initially commence manufacturing
around a million kits per month at its Chennai plant before scaling up
production, CEO Girish Krishnamurthy told Reuters.

Called TataMD
Check, the test can return results within 90 minutes and will be available for
purchase at hospitals and laboratories from December, with Krishnamurthy saying
the company was initially focusing on the home market.   

“You don’t
need big, expensive equipment to do the test, so it becomes more accessible and
available, and more labs can start testing,” Krishnamurthy said, adding that the
process primarily relies on artificial intelligence and automation.

India is
the second worst-hit country in the world in terms of the total coronavirus caseload,
behind only the United States. The country’s total caseload reached 85,53,657
with 45,903 new infections being reported on Monday. The US has over 10 million
cases.

India
conducts more than a million tests everyday, although 60% of them are done
using the rapid antigen tests, which is faster but inaccurate, typically detecting
the virus around 80% to 90% of the time.

And with
India wanting to increase testing to over 1.5 million a day, experts have
warned the reliance on rapid antigen tests may result in gross under-reporting
of confirmed cases.

Rapid
antigen tests turn in results within 15 minutes, compared to hours taken for
the RT-PCR or the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction test.

Krishnamurthy
said his company is hoping their test can become the new standard in testing.