Daijiworld Media Network - Pune (SHP)

Pune, Mar 29: India amid the coronavirus pandemic has been under fire mostly for the poor testing rates compared to the other countries across the globe. A new development is what was considered to scale the testing capacity of the country for the coronavirus infection. On March 26, the solution for this problem was given by a Pune-based diagnostic company Mylab Discovery Solutions.

Virologist Minal Dakhave Bhosale led from the front to create India's first coronavirus testing kit even when she was in the last stage of her pregnancy.

Bhosale's efforts bore fruits, with her team delivering the testing kit in a record time of six weeks.

Bhosale gave birth to a baby girl just a day before submitting the kit to the authorities for evaluation.

"It was like giving birth to two babies," PTI quoted Bhosale.

The virologist said both the journeys - that happened in parallel - were not without challenges.

"There were complications in the pregnancy while work on the test kit was on. The baby was delivered through cesarean," she said.

Bhosale said she felt that it was the right time to serve the people to help them in combating the coronavirus threat.

"I had been working for five years in this field and if I don't work in emergency situations when my services are needed the most, then what is the use?" she said.

Though Bhosale was not able to visit the office due to the pregnancy, she was guiding a team of 10 persons working on the project at Mylab Discovery in Pune.

The strong bonds forged with the team over the years and their support made it possible, she said.

Bhosale raced against time to create the Patho Detect testing kit for coronavirus. The kit, which would have taken three to four months for completion, was developed in six weeks, the BBC report said. She had only started working on the creation of the kits in February, at a time when complications relating to her pregnancy had just surfaced. Despite these obstacles, she powered through it all.

"It was an emergency, so I took this on as a challenge. I had to serve my nation," Bhosale told BBC.

The kit was presented for evaluation to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) on March 18. That very day, just an hour before she was taken to the hospital for her delivery, she submitted the proposal to the Indian FDA and the drugs control authority CDSCO seeking commercial approval, the report added.

Mylab announced that it is capable of proving up to 100,000 coronavirus testing kits per week and can produce up to 200,000 if required, the report said. A Mylab kit can test 100 samples at a price of Rs 1,200, which is far more affordable than the price of Rs 4,500 which the Indian government is presently shelling out to import the coronavirus testing kits from abroad.

The World Health Organisation has been urging the countries across the globe to carry out numerous testings in order to contain the spread of novel coronavirus, which so far claimed 20 lives in India. Meanwhile the number of positive cases crossed the 1000 mark and the experts have warned of a further increase. Amidst all these home-grown testing kits by Mylab is a significant breakthrough.

With Inputs from Agencies