The Indian Council for Medical Research on Friday approved the use of diagnostic machines for testing drug-resistant tuberculosis for performing Covid-19 screening in a bid to ramp up India’s testing capacity.

The medical body in a statement said it has validated the use of the diagnostic machines, and recommended it “as a screening test”. Under this, throat or nasal swabs will be collected in a viral transport medium with “virus lysis buffer provided along with the kit”, the statement added.

“Earlier studies have shown that virus lysis buffer neutralizes Nipah and H1N1 viruses,” it added. “The results of the stability of viral RNA after neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 by virus lysis buffer are awaited from the National Institute of Virology. Till such time, Truenat beta CoV test should only be performed with all biosafety precautions in BSL-2 or BSL-3 setups at laboratories.”

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The medical council also said the revised guidelines for these diagnostic machines will be issued once the results from the National Institute of Virology in Pune were available.

Earlier in the day, the Indian Council of Medical Research announced that it was in the final stages of framing a protocol for infusing blood plasma from people who have recovered from the coronavirus into patients in a serious condition. This procedure is known as convalescent plasma therapy.

According to the health ministry’s Friday evening update, there are 6,761 cases of coronavirus in India and 206 people have died. With 1,364 cases, Maharashtra is the worst-affected state. This is followed by Delhi where 898 cases have been reported. The number of recovered patients crossed the 500 mark in the morning, even as the country confirmed its worst daily spike in the number of new cases by the evening.

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