Gonoshasthaya Kendra authorities have handed over the Covid-19 testing kits they have produced to the government for final approval.
The formal handover ceremony was held at the Gonoshasthaya Nagar Hospital in Dhaka's Dhanmondi around 11am on Saturday.
Samples of the kit were sent to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the United States for testing.
Addressing the media at the event, Gonoshasthaya Kendra Founder Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury said he was hopeful if everything goes alright they would get approval within the next week and can start production of the kits.
A team of Gonoshasthaya-RNA Biotech, a sister concern of Gonoshasthaya Kendra, developed the kits called Rapid Dot Blot, which can detect coronavirus infection in 15 minutes.
The project costed about Tk2 crore.
After two months of research, Prof Dr Bijon Kumar Sil, head of the Department of Microbiology at Gono Bishwabidyalay, and his four associates Dr Nihad Adnan, Dr Md Raed Jamiruddin, Dr Firoze Ahmed, and Dr Muhibullah Khandaker finally invented the kit.
On March 17, Gonoshasthaya Kendra declared that they had developed a cheap testing kit that can examine samples to detect Covid-19 in mere minutes.
The team received green signal from the government over two weeks ago to import the raw materials for producing the testing kits.
Researchers say the testing kit can detect coronavirus infection in 15 minutes and is expected to cost around Tk300-350 each.
Earlier on Monday, Gonoshasthaya Kendra founder Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury said, the plan is to produce 100,000 kits per month once approved.
