Covid tests may get cheaper

ICMR removes `4,500 cap 6,387 cases, 170 deaths in 24 hours

With the larger availability of locally made RT-PCR kits for coronavirus testing, the Indian Council of Medical Research removed the `4,500 price cap and said states can decide their own prices for tests. The order is likely to bring down the price of Covid-19 RT-PCR tests, done to detect the presence of infection.

ICMR had on March 17 put a cap on test kit prices after it allowed private labs to do Covid-19 tests. The kits were earlier imported, but with several companies making swabs and kits in India, and aggressive competition leading to a price drop, many states started procuring the kits made in India. After evaluating 83 test kits, ICMR approved 35 kits produced by both Indian and foreign companies.

Till Wednesday morning, a total of 1,51,767 cases were reported in India, in which 64,426 persons were cured. The recovery rate is 42.4 per

cent. The fatality rate is 2.86 per cent. In the last 24 hours, 6,387 fresh cases and 170 new deaths were reported. Covid19India. org reported there were 1,54,369 cases in India, and 4,381 deaths.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, said the Covid-19 antibody tests can be deceptive and may give an inaccurate picture of the prevalence of the disease and immunity among people. India is doing a Sero-survey to see if Covid-19 has entered the community transmission stage.

The testing capacity in India has increased through 435 government labs and 189 private labs (624 in all). Cumulatively, 32.42 lakh samples have been tested so far for Covid-19, of which 1.16 lakh samples were tested on Tuesday. Officials said the government will increase testing to two lakh per day.