The Sri Lanka Institute of Nanotechnology (SLINTEC) is ready to produce at least 3000 swabs used for COVID – 19 tests daily, amidst growing calls for increase testing.
“SLINTEC has been able to reverse engineer COVID – 19 testing swabs,” the institute said on its Facebook page.
The swabs have been produced in collaboration with the Medical Research Institute.
The need for test kits has risen globally with the World Health Organisation calling on countries to implement the”test, test, test” strategy in combatting the novel coronavirus.
The PCR test which is administered widely in determining whether a patient has contracted the virus involves a nasal swab which is then sent as a sample for testing.
For this test it is essential to put a nasal swab into a tube after swabbing a patient.
Nucleic acid-based tests are the most sensitive in early detection of infection, and have been widely used during the COVID-19 pandemic.
These tests typically rely on a decades-old technique called reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, or RT-PCR.
First a sample is taken by swabbing the nasal passages or throat. To find evidence of the virus, researchers use PCR to copy and amplify any segments of viral genetic code found in the sample, which makes it easier to detect.
This typically involves adding reagents and enzymes, and raising and lowering the temperature of the mixture, known as thermal cycling.
Software then determines when the number of copies of the target sequence exceeds a threshold, indicating if the novel coronavirus is present, and at what concentration.
(LI)