Thursday, December 30, 2021

The cheapest airport Covid test you may not be aware of

Mumbai: For close to a month now, passengers undergoing rapid Covid tests at the Mumbai airport have been unknowingly opting for the costlier tests as the cheapest test priced at about a thousand rupees less is not listed on the airport websites for pre-booking.

On December 14, the Maharashtra government had capped the price of Covid tests. Its notification offered three options for rapid tests; 'Abbot ID' and 'Thermo fisher Accula' had their prices capped at Rs 1,975. The third one called the 'Tata MD3 Gene Fast/Tata MDFX' is an indigenous product and its price was capped at Rs 975, making it the cheapest option for a rapid Covid test. However, neither the Mumbai airport website nor the Air Suvidha website (handled by the Delhi airport) lists the 'Tata MD3' test as an option for pre-booking.

"The express (rapid) tests have been available in the market from the first week of December," said Girish Krishnamurthy, CEO, TATA Medical & Diagnostics Ltd (MDs).

"Tata MDs indigenously developed express RT-PCR tests... Our fast RT-PCR 3 Gene and Tata MD XF are approved by ICMR and are variant-proof, including Omicron," he said, adding they were in "discussions with airport authorities and laboratories to ensure that passengers are given access to select an affordable express RT-PCR test."

30/12/21 Manju V/Times of India

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