ICMR to advise COVID-19 testing for all symptomatic persons 'without any qualifiers': Report

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has revised its COVID-19 testing strategy again to include symptomatic individuals.

It earlier advised testing only for symptomatic individuals in hospitals, containment zones and hotspots, contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases, healthcare and frontline workers and those with history of international travel.

A member of ICMR’s epidemiology and surveillance task force told The Indian Express that this would be the first time that COVID-19 testing was advised for symptomatic individuals “without any qualifiers.”

“Since test, track and treat is the only way to prevent spread of infection and save lives, it is imperative that testing should be made widely available to all symptomatic individuals in every part of the country and contact tracing mechanisms for containment of infection are further strengthened,” the person told the newspaper.

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ICMR has advised state governments, Union Territory administrations, and public and private institutions to take required steps to scale up COVID-19 testing by deploying a combination of various tests, the report adds.

Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.

The medical authority has urged private hospitals, offices, and public sector units to conduct antibody testing as a surveillance measure.

This comes at a time when India’s COVID-19 cases have crossed the 4.5 lakh-mark. This number includes 14,476 deaths caused by COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

Incidentally, India tested 2.1 lakh samples on June 23 — the highest in a 24 hour-period. As many as 73.5 lakh samples have been tested for COVID-19 in the country till June 23.