Rajasthan first state to carry out rapid antibodies test: Govt
Chief minister Ashok Gehlot said 50,000 more kits were expected to arrive on Friday night and over next three days.
Rajasthan started rapid testing of people for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) on Friday with the arrival of 10,000 kits from Delhi, and all 52 people who underwent the tests turned out to be free of the virus.
Chief minister Ashok Gehlot said 50,000 more kits were expected to arrive on Friday night and over next three days. The state government proposes to simultaneously continue tests using the laboratory technique called reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).
Rajasthan plans to use rapid test for community surveillance and to scale up testing capacity to 10,000 tests per day over the next 10 days.
Rapid tests for Covid-19 began in the country on Friday after the arrival of the kits ordered from China by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). China had restricted exports of the kits after quality issues surfaced, but an ICMR official, requesting anonymity, said the kits were found to be of satisfactory quality.
The rapid testing kits are being dispatched and distributed among states that have a high burden of the coronavirus disease, said Lav Agarwal, joint secretary in the Union health ministry.
“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 Agarwal.
Rapid testing kits are meant for mass testing to detect undiagnosed infections. “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 the virology department, Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu.
Apart from getting a share of the central pool, the states have also been given a free hand to procure kits locally depending on their needs.
Andhra Pradesh received a consignment of 100,000 rapid test kits manufactured by SD Biosensors based in South Korea, which arrived on a chartered Air India flight on Friday. Chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, who was the first to get tested using the kit, tuned out to be negative for the virus.
