Coronavirus: NIV Pune develops India’s 1st indigenous Covid-19 testing kit named Elisa

By Lokmat English Desk | Published: May 11, 2020 09:46 AM2020-05-11T09:46:39+5:302020-05-11T09:46:39+5:30

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Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan announced on Sunday that India has developed indigenous Covid-19 testing kit. Elisa, developed by Pune-based Institute of Virology, detects antibodies for Covid-19.

“National Institute of Virology, Pune has successfully developed the 1st indigenous anti-SARS-CoV-2 human IgG ELISA test kit for antibody detection of #COVID19,” Harsh Vardhan tweeted on Sunday evening.

“This robust test will play a critical role in surveillance of proportion of population exposed to #SARSCoV2 infection,” he said further in the tweet.

India’s tally of Covid-19 positive cases crossed the 62,000-mark on Sunday after the country reported more than 3,200 new cases in the last 24 hours.

According to Union health ministry, the country recorded 128 deaths due to Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, taking the toll to 2,109.

The number of people who have recovered stood at 19,357.

The highest number of cases continued to be reported from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi and Tamil Nadu.

The health ministry further said that as many as 6542 people have tested positive for coronavirus in the national capital.

Seventy three people have died from the infection while 2020 have made a recovery, as per the health ministry’s data.

The number of Covid-19 positive cases crossed the 20,000-mark in Maharashtra on Sunday, according to Union Health Ministry data.