NEW DELHI, Nov 24: Union Home Minister Amit Shah inaugurated a mobile RT-PCR testing lab on the ICMR campus in New Delhi on Monday to provide affordable coronavirus testing facilities to the people in the Capital.

The lab, run by SpiceJet's SpiceHealth subsidiary, has the capacity to do 1,000 tests a day. As against the current prevailing rate of Rs 2,400 for a RT-PCR test, the mobile unit charges Rs 499 and the results will be given in 6 hours. Elsewhere it takes 24 to 48 hours to know the result.

SpiceHealth, an initiative of the promoters of SpiceJet, will set up 20 more such portable testing facilities across the country to make it readily accessible to people.

The SpiceHealth-ICMR project is being implemented in association with GeneStore, a genomics company.

“The RT-PCR test, known for its diagnostic accuracy, is the most commonly used Covid test worldwide. By offering this test at a fraction of the current price, ensuring a much faster turnaround time of just six hours, and deploying mobile laboratories which are easily transportable to the remotest areas, we hope to significantly scale up testing across the country,” the SpiceHealth spokesperson told HT.

SpiceHealth has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the ICMR for setting up testing laboratories and collection centers across the nation.