Rapid antigen testing crosses 200,000, helps Ghaziabad reduce test positivity

Ghaziabad: Ghaziabad completed 200,000 tests through the rapid Covid-19 antigen kits on October 4, accounting for nearly 60% of overall testing in the district.

Ghaziabad: Ghaziabad completed 200,000 tests through the rapid Covid-19 antigen kits on October 4, accounting for nearly 60% of overall testing in the district.

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The tests are, however, not accurate, but unlike the “gold standard” RT-PCR testing, it offers speedier results -- 30 minutes instead of days. These tests were first introduced on June 26, following which testing leapfrogged in the district.

According to the official figures of the district health department, of the total 335,610 tests, rapid antigen kits share was 201,153. From March 5, when the first positive case was detected, till June 25, the district conducted 18,005 tests and recorded 1168 cases giving a test positivity rate (TPR, number of positives per 100 cases) of 6.48%.

TPR has reduced rapidly since the antigen tests were introduced. On October 4, it was at 4.49%, well below the government’s target of 5%.

“The use of rapid antigen kits has helped us in speedy detection of cases and this has helped us in early referral of patients for treatment at Covid facilities. As directed by the government, we are trying to conduct more of RT-PCR tests which should be about one-third of total daily testing,” said Ajay Shankar Pandey, district magistrate.

“The delay in RT-PCR test results is because we have to send samples outside the district for testing due to capacity constraints, which is at at 200-250 tests per day while we are conducting more than 1500 RT-PCR tests per day with overall daily testing of 6000 samples,” said a district health officer who did not wish to be named.

Experts, however, faulted the extensive use of antigen kits.

“The ideal use of rapid antigen kits is in containment zones where guidelines have been issued for 100% testing. Since the rapid antigen kits are less specific than the RT-PCR test, the correct results may not be obtained. Otherwise, it helps in reducing the TRP and scale up testing figures. It is now a general trend of use of more rapid antigen kit.This way, the focus is more on quantity than quality of test,” said Dr Lalit Kant, the former epidemiology and communicable diseases head at the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR).

The extensive use of rapid antigen kits has also helped the district in increasing other numbers -- its number of tests per million per day has increased from 86.65 in July to 885.17 in September. The World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) recommendation is of 140 tests per million residents a day.

Although the district has scaled its testing figures, it is still identified among the 16 districts in UP which have daily average of over 100 Covid-19 positive cases in a week.