Government of Bangladesh on Thursday granted approval for the production of the locally developed low cost Corona testing kit. The kit requires some chemical reagents which need to be imported. The approval to import raw materials was given by the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) on Thursday.

The kit has been developed by Gono shasthaya Kendra, a Bangladesh based public health organisation that runs hospitals and medical research work in the country especially for the rural areas.

After producing the kit, Gono shasthaya Kendra will have to send the kit to DGDA for final approval of WHO.

The full scale production of the kit may begin within the next two weeks reports the official news agency BSS.

Gono shasthaya Kendra claims that the kit will be able to detect Corona virus positive cases quickly within 15 minutes using the 'Rapid Blot-Dot' technique which looks for anti- bodies created in the body in response to Corona virus infection. According to the Gano shasthaya Kendra, the kit will cost approximately 250-300 Taka.

The standard method of diagnosis of Corona virus is by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) which uses sequencing from a nasopharyngeal swab or sputum sample.