Feluda and the Case of the Covid Test Results2 min read

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Coronavirus test results can take a few hours or days to come back, so wouldn’t it be ideal if there was a test that gave results almost immediately? A team of scientists has developed a paper test for Covid-19 that could quick results.

Named after the iconic, fictional private investigator Feluda, a character created by Indian filmmaker and writer Satyajit Ray, the test can give results in under an hour, and will cost around Rs 500.

Feluda is based on a gene-editing technology called Crispr – short for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats. The science behind this is interesting and very precise: the technology can identify the virus within minutes and will indicate whether a person has tested positive by a change in colour of the paper.

Two blue lines indicate a positive result, while a single blue line means the test has returned negative.

The test was tried on about 2,000 patients, including those who had already tested positive for coronavirus, and the results were almost completely accurate. It has been given the thumbs-up for commercial use and can be conducted at smaller laboratories with less sophisticated equipment. It is conducted by collecting a nasal swab – similar to the PCR test that is widely used to detect Covid-19.

India has the world’s second-highest Covid-19 caseload, and with its vast population, Feluda could come to our rescue!

Did you know that there are FOUR ways to test for coronavirus? Watch the video below to know what they are!