IIT launches a Covid-19 Test Bus in Mumbai — capable of conducting 5 million tests per month

• As coronavirus cases surge in the city, Mumbai gets its first Covid-19 Test Bus.
  
• The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Alumni Council launched a test bus that can reduce the cost of testing by over 80% without compromising on the testing capacity.
  
• According to the alumni body, this will facilitate a “100x increase in testing capacity, hopefully within a hundred days.”

Mumbai is one of the worst-hit cities in the coronavirus pandemic, and now to accelerate the rate of testing, the city is set to get a unique ‘Covid-19 Test Bus’. As the name suggests, this bus will move around the city collecting test samples for rapid testing.

On Maharashtra Day on May 1, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Alumni Council launched a test bus that can reduce the cost of testing by over 80% without compromising on the testing capacity. IIT Alumni Council is a global alumni body for all the twenty three IITs.


According to the alumni body, this will facilitate a “100x increase in testing capacity, hopefully within a hundred days.”

“The IIT Alumni Council has taken a proactive approach to supporting the Government’s efforts in fighting the Covid-19 challenge. We have acted swiftly and set up the IIT C19 Task Force to channelise the energies of the global IIT Alumni for this fight,” said Ravi Sharma, President, IIT Alumni Council.

The move is aimed at supporting the health department in tackling the pandemic that has caused 361 deaths and over 11,000 infections in Mumbai alone. India’s testing capacity stood at 177 tests per million, as on April 15.

Up to five million tests per month

The IIT C19 Test Bus is based on the Kodoy architecture model that can facilitate affordable and rapid testing. It involves e-vehicles for sample selection & telemedicine, algorithm based pooled genetic testing and megalabs that are capable of conducting up to five million tests per month per lab.

“The Covid-19 Test Bus is based on indigenous technology and to the best of our knowledge, is the first vehicle of its kind in the world with onboard genetic testing, AI-based teleradiology and contactless sample collection. We chose Mumbai as the launch location given the relatively high number of cases in the city,” Sharma said.

How does it work?

At first, a digital chest x-ray would be carried out and sent to the doctors online. The healthcare staff will then use artificial intelligence to see the probability of a person having Coronavirus.

“Then we collect the swab from the mouth and throat which is done across a glass screen whilst fully protecting the technician from any kind of contact with the patient,” said Dr Muffazal Lakadawala, Chief Medical Officer at the NSCI hub.

These samples are then sent to the diagnostic centers. The test bus has a capacity to collect 10-15 test samples per hour.

To onboard the lab space on the test bus, the IIT Alumni Council has partnered with Krsnaa Diagnostics, a venture-capital funded laboratory in India.

See also:
Google’s mobility report reveals that nearly half of Maharashtra’s workforce went to work despite Coronavirus lockdown

Dutch scientists have reportedly developed antibodies that can block coronavirus as well as SARS infection⁠— but it’s too early to call it a cure