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Rapid testing begins as kits from China get clearance
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said another 50,000 kits are expected to arrive tonight and over next three days, the state will get 2 lakh rapid testing kits to push up testing.
Rajasthan began conducting rapid testing for coronavirus disease (Covid-19) on Friday with the arrival of 10,000 testing kits from Delhi. All the 52 persons tested at the urban PHC Topkhana Desh on Friday evening tested negative.
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said another 50,000 kits are expected to arrive tonight and over next three days, the state will get 2 lakh rapid testing kits to push up testing. “We have received 10,000 kits and have started conducted rapid testing. In addition to rapid testing, PCR based testing will continue,” said Gehlot. Rajasthan plans to use rapid test for community surveillance and scale up testing capacity to 10,000 tests per day over the next ten days.
Rapid tests have began India on Friday following 5 lakh rapid-testing imported from China being dispatched from the Indian Council of Medical Research’s (ICMR) main depot at its National Institute of Malaria Research (NIMR) on Friday, for six regional depots that will further distribute it to local laboratories doing testing.
“The lot testing of the batch was completed today, and all kits were found to be of satisfactory quality. The consignment has been dispatched from NIMR,” said an ICMR official, requesting anonymity.
There are six institutes that ICMR has identified across India for storing the kits as it requires to maintain a cold chain conditions. Ten more institutes are being added as the number of kits being ordered is rising.
“The rapid testing kits are being dispatched and being distributed among states that have high disease burden. The kits are being directly given to states and will be deployed or used by them as per their requirement, as long as ICMR guidelines for testing are adequately followed,” said Lav Agarwal, joint secretary, Union health ministry.
The health ministry, however, did not give information on the number of kits being sent to each of their institutes or to which states and how many.
The consignment that arrived on Thursday morning has 500,000 antibody testing kits and 100,000 RNA extraction kits. Of the 500,000, 300,000 are from Guangzhou Wondfo and another 200,000 from Zhuhai Livzon.
There are 170 hotspot districts and 207 other districts with clusters, according to the health ministry.
“The Rapid testing kits, as I have been saying again and again, are not to be used for diagnostic purposes, rather surveillance purposes to know the disease prevalence within the community. That’s how these kits should be used,” said Dr Raman R Gangakhedkar, head, epidemiology and communicable disease, ICMR.
Rapid testing kits are meant for mass testing to detect undiagnosed infection. “Rapid testing works when you have to test a large number of people in a short span of time, as it is quicker and cheaper,” said Dr T Jacob John, former head of virology department, Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu.
Apart from the central pool, the states have also been given a free hand to procure kits locally as per their needs.
Andhra Pradesh received a consignment of one lakh rapid test kits manufactured by SD Biosensors from South Korea, which arrived on chartered flight Air India flight on Friday. Chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, who was the first to get tested at his camp office in Tadepalli, tested negative.
The flight reached New Delhi on Thursday and was brought to Hyderabad in the same evening. “From there, the kits were brought to Vijayawada by road on Friday morning,” the spokesman
