KOLKATA: The state government is adopting a strategy in Covid-19 testing by scaling up the rapid antigen procedure that provides the results in less than an hour, identifying those in need of immediate medical care and pinpointing those who are asymptomatic but at greatest risk of spreading the virus.
The government is procuring around 5 lakh more rapid antigen test (RAT) kits that will reduce the turnaround time for several people who do not receive their reports even days after getting tested, resulting in severe illness and spreading of the virus.
Rapid antigen tests had to be discontinued in May after the kits sent by the Centre turned out to be defective. In July, the government procured 10,000 kits in the first lot, which were mainly disbursed to government hospitals to be used on patients who needed immediate diagnosis, including those on pre-operative patients.
“After that, the state government had procured nearly 5 lakh more RAT in the second lot. Now, we are expecting another 5 lakh kits by Monday,” said a senior health department official. RAT kits are now being deployed to test frontline workers like doctors, nurses, police, civic workers and people in containment zones. Recently, KMC had started using this test in apartments.
“The new lot of kits will be used for mass testing, which will help us to identify and start with the treatment of those with severe infection. Till now, it was taking 24 to 36 hours to get the result after giving the swab samples,” said a doctor associated with a Covid facility of the state government.
Healthcare experts feel frequent testing will curb the spread of the virus. “In hotspots, these tests will help health workers to identify those who may be asymptomatic but can prove to be spreaders. It will also help in contact tracing and isolating those who test positive,” said an expert.
According to infectious disease control specialists, all positive results by rapid antigen kits are truly positive while negative results are not truly negatives and those showing symptoms must go for RT-PCR test.
The government is procuring around 5 lakh more rapid antigen test (RAT) kits that will reduce the turnaround time for several people who do not receive their reports even days after getting tested, resulting in severe illness and spreading of the virus.
Rapid antigen tests had to be discontinued in May after the kits sent by the Centre turned out to be defective. In July, the government procured 10,000 kits in the first lot, which were mainly disbursed to government hospitals to be used on patients who needed immediate diagnosis, including those on pre-operative patients.
“After that, the state government had procured nearly 5 lakh more RAT in the second lot. Now, we are expecting another 5 lakh kits by Monday,” said a senior health department official. RAT kits are now being deployed to test frontline workers like doctors, nurses, police, civic workers and people in containment zones. Recently, KMC had started using this test in apartments.
“The new lot of kits will be used for mass testing, which will help us to identify and start with the treatment of those with severe infection. Till now, it was taking 24 to 36 hours to get the result after giving the swab samples,” said a doctor associated with a Covid facility of the state government.
Healthcare experts feel frequent testing will curb the spread of the virus. “In hotspots, these tests will help health workers to identify those who may be asymptomatic but can prove to be spreaders. It will also help in contact tracing and isolating those who test positive,” said an expert.
According to infectious disease control specialists, all positive results by rapid antigen kits are truly positive while negative results are not truly negatives and those showing symptoms must go for RT-PCR test.
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