As the number of cases of coronavirus disease in India crossed 10,000 , the health ministry is considering pooled testing of people with symptoms in areas from where no Sars-Cov-2 (the virus that causes Covid-19) infections have been reported, a health ministry official said on condition of anonymity.
There are around 450 districts (out of a total of around 730) which have not reported any Covid-19 cases. The plan is to test people with symptoms (cough, fever) using both RT-PCR, or Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction, and rapid antibody testing.
Pooling of samples involves testing them in batches. When a pooled sample tests positive, then individual samples are assessed. Research shows that this method can be used to do up to three times as many tests with the same number of kits — an important consideration given India’s population.
The regions will be selected on the basis of data available through the integrated disease surveillance programme network, and also the new mobile application, Arogya Setu, which has started generating relevant data on the disease pattern, the health ministry official added.
“Pooled testing is a good surveillance tool and can be used to test symptomatic people in non-Covid areas to confirm if the areas are actually Covid-19-free. It has not happened yet but is being considered as one of the options to get an idea on the disease spread. The idea is already there, testing will only confirm it,” this person said.
{{/usCountry}}“Pooled testing is a good surveillance tool and can be used to test symptomatic people in non-Covid areas to confirm if the areas are actually Covid-19-free. It has not happened yet but is being considered as one of the options to get an idea on the disease spread. The idea is already there, testing will only confirm it,” this person said.
{{/usCountry}}India is yet to get the rapid test kits it ordered from China, so the plan will be put into effect with RT-PCR tests.
Once the rapid test kits arrive -- these antibody test results are available in 30 minutes as opposed to the RT-PCR tests which take about five hours -- they will be used.
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Monday said people should not worry about testing as India had enough stock of the kits.
“We currently have enough stocks to do be able to do testing for at least six more weeks. There is no need to fear,” said Dr Raman Gangakhedkar, head of the division of epidemiology and communicable diseases, ICMR, .
Experts in the field say the ICMR is already late.
“They should have started at least a month ago; even if they didn’t have rapid test kits; they should have gone ahead with the RT-PCR tests. We had to test more to know better,” said a senior epidemiologist, who asked not to be identified.
Meanwhile, ICMR is also working on increasing the number of laboratories that can test, and is in the process of upgrading laboratories of both private and government medical colleges so that these can also be utilised for Covid-19 testing. It is currently in the process of identifying college laboratories that can be upgraded with the help of some mentoring by advanced labs already doing Covid-19 testing.
“ICMR has taken cognizance of the need to expeditiously expand Covid-19 testing facilities in all parts of the country… efforts are being made for proactive search of potential laboratories which could be enabled for Covid-19 testing…,” says an ICMR document seen by HT.
ICMR has identified 14 institutes of national eminence, such as All India Institutes of Medical Sciences; Armed Forces Medical College, Pune; National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, Bengaluru; the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research in Puducherry; King George Medical University, Lucknow; and Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad to mentor colleges.
The mentor labs will form teams to conduct a comprehensive review of the college laboratories. The mentors will see what facilities these laboratories have and what they need to be able to do Covid-19 testing. At least 400 such laboratories have been identified by the government for assessment.
“It is a good idea as there are some states with good infrastructure, and their labs can be taken up almost immediately. For those states that don’t have good medical colleges, the government can help set up/upgrade lab based on Covid-19 testing requirement. The good thing is labs can be created or upgraded in a short span of time, so we can increase the capabilities of the testing labs,” said Dr Jugal Kishore, community medicine expert, Safdarjung Hospital.