The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Thursday urged the states and territories of the Union to obligatorily retest all symptomatic negative cases of rapid antigen tests through RT-PCR. He also called on the states / UTs to ensure that no positive cases are missed to slow the spread of the infection.
The ministry stated that “in some large states, negative symptomatic cases analyzed by rapid antigen tests (RAT) are not being followed by RT-PCT test.”
According to ICMR guidelines, all rapid antigen test (RAT) negative symptomatic (fever or cough or dyspnea) cases and all asymptomatic negative RAT cases developing symptoms within 2 to 3 days of testing negative must be done again.
The Union ministry stated that these symptomatic negative cases could remain untested for RT-PCT and spread the disease among their contacts.
In particular, the ministry in its letter to the states and territories of the Union stated that the RAT is being used to increase access and availability of tests in the field, while RT-PCR remains the gold standard of the COVID-19 testing.
The latest development comes at a time when India’s COVID-19 count is set to cross the 45 lakh mark. With the highest peak in a single day of 95,735 new cases and 1,172 deaths reported in the last 24 hours, India’s COVID-19 count is 44,65,864.
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