ABSTRACT
BackgroundWith the rapid increase in COVID-19 cases and the discovery of new viral variants within India over multiple waves, the expensive reagents and time-consuming sample pretreatment required for qPCR analysis have led to slower detection of the disease. The vast Indian population demands an inexpensive and competent sample preparation strategy for rapid detection of the disease facilitating early and efficient containment of the disease. MethodsIn this study, we have surveyed the spread of COVID-19 infection over Faridabad, Haryana, India for 6 months. We also devised a simple single-step method for total RNA extraction using a single tube and compared its efficacy with the commercially available kits. FindingsOur findings suggest that determining Ct values for samples subjected to the One Pot (OP) RNA extraction method was as efficient as the commercially available kits but delivers a subtle advantage in a way, by minimizing the cost, labor, and sample preparation time. ConclusionThis novel crude RNA extraction method is stable and capable of operating in developing countries like India for low resource settings, without the use of expensive reagents and instruments. Additionally, this method can be further adapted to pooling samples strategies owing to its high sensitivity.
