Limited antigen kits hold up Gurugram efforts to increase testing

A day after the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) issued an advisory to ramp up testing through Rapid Antigen Test (RAT), the Gurugram health department on Wednesday said they had limited stock available

A day after the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) issued an advisory to ramp up testing through Rapid Antigen Test (RAT), the Gurugram health department on Wednesday said they had limited stock available.

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“Currently, there are about 2,000 antigen testing kits with the health department. The state has allocated almost 10,000 kits, which are likely to arrive by Wednesday night. We have been conducting over 4,000 antigen tests every day in large outbreak areas (LORs, where there are 15 or more cases) for timely detection and isolation of cases. the measures required to increase RAT can only be followed based on the sufficient allocation of kits by the state health department,” said Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer.The district does not get daily stock of testing kits.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Tuesday advised setting up of dedicated round-the-clock RAT booths and drive-through booths at multiple locations in cities, towns and villages. Yadav said this could be done at the polyclinic in Sector 31 provided they get the additional testing kits. “But there is no clarity on when it is likely to start. For setting multiple booths, department needs health staff along with sufficient kits,” he said.

The ICMR had earlier emphasised on at least 70% of testing in any region to be using RT-PCR kits, which is more accurate but slower than RAT that gives a result within 20 minutes. Experts said the new measure is to break the chain of transmission through early diagnosis.

Since the beginning of the week, the health department has increased antigen tests. Over 8,700 antigen tests were done over the last two days. On Wednesday, however, only 2,392 antigen tests were administered. The seven-day average of antigen tests in the last week of April shows at least 1,679 RAT were administered every day.

Like other cities, Gurugram has been reeling under pressure to give timely RT-PCR results within 36 hours due to intense case load. But people have been getting test results within three to four days, which has been a hurdle in breaking the transmission chain.

The new ICMR testing strategy said round-the-clock booths were to improve access and availability of vaccines. Even drive-through for RAT testing facilities has to be created. To reduce the existing burden on the laboratory, ICMR has suggested that RT-PCR test results should be removed for interstate domestic travel.