New Delhi:
People who had coronavirus symptoms but tested negative on rapid antigen tests should be retested, the government told states today amid a record surge in cases in one day across the country.
The RT-PCR test should be used to confirm Covid cases, the Union Health Ministry said in a notice.
“Union states / territories to ensure positive cases are not lost to slow the spread of infection,” the ministry said.
The warning comes as states have increased their use of rapid antigen testing, which is cheaper and faster, but also has a high false-negative rate, a problem recognized even by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR).
Recently, an ICMR advisory had emphasized that states should test all people living in containment zones using rapid antigen test kits, especially in cities that are severely affected by the coronavirus outbreak. However, he added that an RT-PCR test should be performed “if a person develops symptoms after a negative RAT.”
The daily numbers being released for India’s Covid positivity rate could be misleading, an analysis of the data on the tests, which NDTV has access to, shows.
The country’s daily positivity rate is 8.4 percent, up from 7.7 percent on Wednesday, government data showed today.
India recorded 95,735 coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, the highest so far, bringing the total number of infections to more than 44.65 lakh. The country also recorded the highest deaths in a day with 1,172 deaths.
There are over 9.19 lakh of active cases in India which is the second worst affected nation
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