The Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) has validated only one Indo-South Korean company among 14 companies/vendors of rapid antigen test kits for Covid-19 that have approached the regulatory body for approval/validation so far.

Seven of the other companies/vendors are Indian while others are from South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Belgium.

The test kit of SD Biosensor, an Indo-Korean company has been validated according to the ICMR’s status report on Friday.

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The ICMR said the kits of Camtech Diagnostics (Singapore), Agappe Diagnostics (India) Rapigen Inc of Soukth Korea, POCT service Pvt Ltd (India), HLL Lifecare (India) are in transit.

It said it has received the kit from Bhat Bio-Tech India, (Bengaluru) on Friday.

The status report also said response is awaited for five companies – Coris Bioconcept (Belgium), J. Mitra & Co. Ltd (India), M/s Medsource Ozone Biomedicals Pvt. Ltd (India), Panion & BF Biotech and Formosa Biomedical Technology Corp (both from Taiwan)

India is ramping up testing facilities for Covid-19 amid surging numbers. India’s Covid-19 tally now stands at close to 6.5 lakh.

Some states like Odisha have come under fire for low testing while Telangana had to suspend testing for two days in and around Hyderabad earlier this week after labs were flooded with samples.