NIV-Pune develops India's first antibody testing kit -ELISA

National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, one of the major institutes of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), has successfully developed the country’s first indigenous anti-SARS-CoV-2 human IgG ELISA test kit for antibody detection of COVID19.
The indigenous test is named as “COVID KAVACH ELISA”.
The ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) Test kit will play a critical role in large scale surveillance of proportion of the population exposed to SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infection.
ELISA kits are similar to rapid antibody tests, which detect antibodies in the blood to find out if an individual was infected with COVID-19 infection or not. The only difference is that rapid antibody tests gives results on-the-spot while ELISA based test is laboratory dependent.
ICMR has partnered with Gujarat-based Pharma firm Zydus Cadila for mass-scale production of the ELISA test kits.
This test will be used to initiate a study in 75 of the worst affected districts of the country to check for community transmission of the coronavirus.