Aswini B | 26 April 2020
The incidence of COVID-19 is rising higher and higher with each passing day and testing is the only way to find out the actual number of cases. While we are gearing up the testing rate and developing technologies for more reliable and quicker detection, CSIR-IGIB has come up with an abstract of standard operating protocols (SOP) for novel coronavirus (2019-ncov) RT-PCR testing. Dr Sridhar Sivasubbu, Dr Vinod Scaria, Dr Sheetal Gandotra Dr Vivek Rao and their students have together standardized the 2019-nCoV RT PCR test and prepared this detailed protocol booklet as educational material for CSIR laboratories for performing the testing of 2019-nCov Samples.
This booklet gives technicalities regarding the necessities for a lab to perform the testing. It describes the standard protocol for decontamination and waste disposal, methods of sampling, handling, packaging and transport of the samples to the lab with extreme safety measures. The protocol also describes in detail the method of testing, i.e. the protocol to extract the RNA (genetic material) from the sample and to proceed with the RT PCR testing.
The poster below designed by Vigneshwar Senthivel, a PhD student from CSIR-IGIB, gives a summary of the protocol for the testing.
