Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu lauds Maharashtra virologist for developing coronavirus COVID-19 testing kit

New Delhi: The Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday lauded Maharashtra-based virologist Minal Dakhave Bhosale and her team at Mylab Discovery Solutions for developing COVID-19 testing kit, India's first such kit.

Naidu in a tweet wrote: "To the manufacturers who created the first Corona testing Kit in India I heartily congratulate virologist Meenal Dakhave Bhosle and her My lab Solutions team."

भारत में पहली कोरोना टेस्टिंग किट बनाने के लिये मैं वायरोलॉजिस्ट मीनल दखावे भोसले और @MylabSolutions में उनकी टीम का हार्दिक अभिनंदन करता हूँ।

उनके द्वारा देश में ही विकसित यह सस्ती किट भारत में कोविड-19 के विरुद्ध लड़ाई में अहम योगदान देगी। #IndiaFightsCorona — Vice President of India (@VPSecretariat) March 29, 2020

He added that this inexpensive kit will contribute significantly in the fight against COVID-19 in India. The kit can test around 100 samples.

Even though Bhosale was in the last stage of her pregnancy, her efforts paid the price with her team delivering the testing kit in a record time of six weeks. 

"I had been working for five years in this field and if I don't work in emergency situations when my services are needed the most, then what is the use?" she told PTI on a telephonic cooversation.

The COVID-19 testing kit delivered by Bhosale's team will reduce the time taken for delivering a result to 2.5 hours from the prevalent practice of eight hours.

On Sunday, Maharashtra reported 12 new cases which includes 5 cases from Pune, 4 from Mumbai, 1 each from Jalgaon, Sangli, Nagpur and one death. Maharashtra is the worst affected state with 193 cases and 7 deaths. 

While, the total number of COVID-19 cases in India on Sunday reached  979 out of which 867 are active cases, 86 recovered, 25 deaths and 1 migrated patient, as per Ministry of Health's latest update.