As COVID-19 pandemic spread quickly, India faced twin challenges - short supply of testing swabs and those imported from China at a steep price of Rs 17 per stick were proving to be inferior. A solution was fixed in 10-days combining the expertise of Johnson & Johnson of manufacturing a similar product in earbuds, and Reliance Industries providing custom-made polyester staple fiber that resulted in the cost of swabs coming down to just Rs 1.7 per unit.
While the earbuds typically use cotton and the stick is too small to take throat and nasal swabs, an extender was used to increase the length of the stem and the PSF from Reliance provided lab-approved material for testing.
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