Yet to take a call on rapid test kits’ use, says Centre
NEW DELHI : India is yet to take a decision on the use of antibody based rapid testing kits (blood tests), said Lav Agarwal, joint secretary in the health ministry.
The Indian Council of Medical Research told states to not use the RTKs it sent them after finding huge variations in the results. The kits were imported by it from China and arrived on April 16 after missing two deadlines. They were shipped out to states shortly after, but the apex medical research body told the states to suspend the use of kits on April 21. Following a field assessment, it said on April 27 that the kits were not to be used
“The issue is being examined by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) currently, and they are yet to come up with a revised guideline on its use. As and when they are done, they will release the fresh advisory. However, rapid test kits have a limited use, the gold standard for infection detection continues to remain the polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test,” Agarwal said.
To be sure, ICMR’s withdrawal of kits pertained only to the kits it was supplying the states. Some states are using RTKs sourced from Korea and do not seem to be having problems with them.
India on Tuesday saw the highest jump in the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases and deaths in a single day, with 3,900 new positive cases and 195 deaths, taking the total number of infected people in the country to 46,433 and the death toll to 1,568, according to health ministry data as of Tuesday afternoon. The ministry’s data lags that in HT’s own dashboard which is based on the data at Covid19india.org, and the information released by state governments. According to HT’s dashboard, India’s tally as of Tuesday night was 49,379 cases and 1,613 deaths, with 2,991 cases and 119 deaths being added since Monday night.
Agarwal attributed the sudden jump in cases and deaths to certain states not reporting figures on time.
“There were some states that were not sending updating figures in time. So the sudden increase in numbers that you are seeing it is actually not the number of deaths or cases having gone up but the figures being updated. The gap is being addressed now,” he said.
“Since we are dealing with a highly infectious disease here, timely reporting and management of cases is extremely crucial. Our case doubling rate has gone up from 3.4 days before lockdown to nearly 12 days now, and we are quite comfortable as far as surveillance and case management is concerned. However, this has to be maintained,” Agarwal added.
The health ministry is also focusing on ensuring patients don’t face inconvenience in accessing non-covid related essential medical services. “It is a season of vector-borne disease such as dengue, chikungunya and other related diseases, so states have been asked to stay fully prepared for treating these patients also,’ he said.
Apart from a directive on managing seasonal diseases, the health ministry has also issued guidelines on delivery of essential health services by states to critically ill patients suffering from chronic conditions and needing dialysis, chemotherapy, blood transfusion etc. in government and private non-covid facilities as per the relaxations given in various zones.