Rapid testing may begin on Thursday
NEW DELHI: India is likely to start rapid antibody testing on Thursday, with people in high-risk areas (containment zones), “large migration gatherings” and evacuation centres expected to be the first to get undergo this simple blood test that checks the presence of antibodies created by the body to fight the Sars-Cov-2 virus.
The country’s apex biomedical research organisation, ICMR, on Saturday released an advisory on how and where rapid test kits can be used.
At the same time, the number of conventional RT-PCR tests being done have increased, with the total test utilisation capacity going up from about 10% in midMarch to about 50% on average in the past two weeks, according to government documents. Data showed that over the last few days, 7,000-8,000 tests were being conducted in the country every day. India has a testing capacity of about 15,000 people every day.
The National Task Force constituted to review testing guidelines did not ease its parameters, and did not open antibody tests to the private sector, despite recommendations from a high-level technical experts committee that wanted these tests to be available to “everyone at risk”, including those outside hot spot areas.
“We are expecting the kits to arrive by Wednesday, and after that the Union health ministry will take a call on where all to deploy these kits in the field,” said Dr Raman R Gangakhedkar, head, epidemiology and communicable diseases division, Indian Council of Medical Research.
“The government’s primary focus has been places from where large number of cases is being reported, large gatherings and evacuation centres. Another focus area for which our experts recommended rapid testing is for patients suffering from influenza like illness (ILI) with an objective to be used as a more effective monitoring tool in these areas,” said Lav Agarwal, joint secretary, Union ministry of health, during Sunday’s media briefing.
“These will be our criteria for distributing the kits once we get the supply,” he added.
According to home ministry data, there are about 28,000 relief camps set up across the country that houses close to 1.25 million migrant workers.
“This is the category of people that falls under those who need rapid testing,” said a senior health ministry official.
There are also about 20 existing and 22 potential hot stops that state governments are currently tracking.
Unlike the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test that detects the virus’s genetic material (RNA) in throat and nasal swabs to diagnose a current Covid-19 infection, rapid antibody tests indicate if a person has been infected in the past and has developed immunity to the virus.
Experts say they can also be used as a screening test for the infection — antibodies typically show up a week after infection.
The simple blood test (samples can be collected by just a finger prick) which takes 15-20 minutes to give results, identifies people who were infected at least a week before the test, and also those who were infected but never diagnosed, helping map undetected infections and giving the correct extent of the spread of the disease.
Some states, like Kerala, are procuring antibody kits on their own for surveillance purposes.
“We are expecting delivery of Rapid Test kits (blood based) for use in response to Covid-19 situation. In this regard, National Task Force deliberated with experts for ascertaining use of these rapid test kits...,” wrote secretary Department of Health Research, Dr Balram Bhargava to health secretary Preeti Sudan on April 4 in a letter seen by HT.
ICMR has been evaluating the rapid test kits, and has already validated seven testing kits, and also put up a list of kits that have CE-IVD (European Union) approval that can be used.
“India has taken a decision to use antibody tests which could be a game-changer. The currently used test (PCR) tells us who are currently sick. We are seeing only the tip of the iceberg,” said Lalit Kant, senior infectious disease expert.
Dr Sanjeev Khosla, director, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research- Institute of Microbial Technology, which is one of the government labs identified for Covid-19 testing, said: “ICMR’s initiative to involve all government-accredited labs is a welcome step… would increase the testing rate among suspected patients.”
OVER THE LAST FEW DAYS, 7-8K TESTS WERE BEING CONDUCTED IN THE COUNTRY EVERY DAY. INDIA HAS THE CAPACITY TO TEST AROUND 15,000 A DAY