Apollo Hospitals and Tata Medical and Diagnostics (TataMD), a healthcare venture of the Tata group, on Thursday announced a partnership to introduce TataMD CHECK, the world's first CRISPR Cas-9 based diagnostic test, to help increase testing for COVID-19 across the country.

Apollo Hospitals, along with its subsidiary, Apollo Diagnostics will offer the testing in the National Capital Region (NCR) from the first week of December 2020.

Also, it will be rolled out across all major centres including Kolkata, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Pune, followed by a second phase into other cities.

"The addition of TataMD check as part of the testing arsenal will be a boost to the ongoing efforts that the country has been waging against this pandemic," Dr Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals (AHEL) and Managing Director, Apollo Health and Lifestyle Limited (AHLL) said in a statement.

"We at Apollo are happy to partner with the Tata Group in what is potentially a revolutionary advancement in the Covid Testing Landscape," Reddy added.

According to the hospital, to create seamless anytime anywhere access for booking, individuals can download Apollo 24/7 app with the benefit of availing reports within two hours.

During the next few weeks, Apollo Hospitals group will ensure the availability of testing in eight hospitals in phase 1 and the location-wise quantities will be ramped up based on the demand and need for expanding this to other centres.

The primary care clinics and Diagnostics Lab and Collection centre of Apollo Diagnostics in all these cities will also support the collection, home collection as well as testing to support this initiative.

TataMD will help train the key diagnostic clinicians and staff from Apollo group on new technology and effective testing protocols in the next few weeks.

"We believe that the association with Apollo Hospitals will catalyse the rapid adoption of TataMD CHECK as the efficient and preferred testing option as we begin to resume our lives again," said Girish Krishnamurthy, CEO & MD, Tata Medical and Diagnostics.

(IANS)