Haryana: 4.6% found positive for rapid antigen test across 16 districts

More than 62,000 people across 16 districts of Haryana have been covered under rapid antigen test for detection of coronavirus till July 19. Of this nearly 4.6%

More than 62,000 people across 16 districts of Haryana have been covered under rapid antigen test for detection of coronavirus till July 19. Of this nearly 4.6% people tested positive for Covid, as per the health department data. Officials said antigen tests have been helpful in detecting people who are asymptomatic, making Covid-19 testing accessible for everyone.

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Experts, however, also believe that too many negatives in the antigen tests can lead to false sense of security.

Across the state, antigen detection kits have been used to test a total of 62,141 people, out of which 2,871 were found positive, while the remaining tested negative for the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Data till July 19 shows that Gurugram’s share in overall tests is almost 40.6%. Its share in the total positives detected is 29.3%.

The antigen diagnostic test detects proteins attached to Covid or within it by testing the sample collected from the nasal cavity using swabs. It delivers result within 30 minutes.

Until July 19, Gurugram has conducted the maximum number of antigen tests by covering 25,249 people. Out of these, 840 were confirmed Covid-19 positive. The district’s antigen test positivity rate is 3.3%. Compared to the antigen tests, RT-PCR positivity rate is as high as 8.1%. From June 24 till July 19, 27959 RT- PCR tests were conducted in the city, out of which 2263 were detected positive for coronavirus. Notably, antigen testing started from June 24.

Compared to Gurugram, Faridabad has done the second highest number of tests at 13,042 out of which 1,161 had tested positive, taking the district’s antigen positivity rate to 8.9%. Sonepat, on the other hand, had conducted just 7,473 antigen tests, of which 334 were detected with SARS-CoV-2 virus. Rewari which did 1,244 tests had a positivity rate of 9.5%, with 118 positives. Rohtak has the lowest positivity rate of 1.2%, even after conducting 2,758 tests (higher than Rohtak) with only 32 positives.

Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer of the district, said, “We are using antigen detection kits for mass testing. It covers people who are asymptomatic as well as symptomatic. Those who are symptomatic but test negative in antigen testing, their samples are being sent for Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test.” The health department, however, did not share the total positivity rate of RT-PCR tests.

Experts, however, warned that negatives or extremely low test positivity rates do not confirm to the fact that the situation was under control. Professor Rajib Dasgupta, centre of social medicine and community health, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) said, “The huge number of negatives mean nothing. On the contrary, if these are not followed up, it will lead to a false sense of security and muddy the true epidemiological picture. The negatives have to be categorised into symptomatic and asymptomatic; and the symptomatics further tested by more confirmatory tests (RT-PCR/CB-NAAT-True-NAAT). That completes the full protocol.”

Dheeraj Kumar, data scientist, who has been monitoring Gurugram’s data agreed with Dasgupta. “Antigen test results should not be relied upon on ‘as-is’ basis to compute positivity rates that informs public health policy and response strategy as it can create a false impression by giving lower values of positivity rates due to its inherently lower sensitivity,” he said.

Dasgupta pointed out that authorities need to clarify that the antigen tests are limited to be conducted only on categories of people defined by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) . “ The rapid antigen test is to be deployed in very specific settings and these include Influenza Like Illnesses (ILI) in containment zones and fever clinics, healthcare workers, suspected COVID-19 deaths, asymptomatic patients undergoing chemotherapy, and, immunosuppressed patients (HIV positive, transplant recipients, etc). It is pertinent that the authorities clarify that the antigen tests are indeed limited to these categories,” said Dasgupta.