Panaji, Mar 25 (IANS): The Goa government has tied up with Pune-based MyLab to obtain COVID-19 testing kits, Health Minister Vishwajit Rane said on Wednesday.

"We have tied up with Pune based MyLab, the first Indian company to get the #COVID-19 test kit validated by the National Institute of Virology. The test result time for the kit is two-and-a-half hours from the time the sample is taken. @PMOIndia @MoHFW_INDIA @NITIAayog @drharshvardhan," Rane tweeted.

In absence of a single virology laboratory in the state, Goa has been testing its suspect COVID-19 samples at virology labs in Pune and Mumbai. The availability of testing kits in Goa would help speed up the time taken for testing samples of suspected patients, which currently takes two to three days, on account of the sample being sent to the neighbouring state of Maharashtra for examination.

On Thursday, a team of medical technicians from Goa left for Pune to train at the National Institute of Virology in the methods related to drawing samples of suspect coronavirus patients and testing them.