Amid record surge in daily coronavirus cases in India, the Union Health Ministry has urged all states and union territories to mandatorily retest all symptomatic negative cases of less-reliable rapid antigen tests through RT-PCR - the "gold standard' for coronavirus testing.
"States/union territories to ensure that no positive cases are missed to curb the spread of infection," the Union Home Ministry said.
#IndiaFightsCorona
— Ministry of Health (@MoHFW_INDIA) September 10, 2020
Health Ministry urges States/UTs to Mandatorily retest all Symptomatic Negative Cases of Rapid Antigen Tests through RT-PCR.https://t.co/jIqbBmdshV@PMOIndia@drharshvardhan@AshwiniKChoubey@PIB_India@DDNewslive@airnewsalerts@ICMRDELHI@mygovindia
The advisory comes as states have increased the use of rapid antigen testing, which are cheaper but also has a high false negativity rate (they report positive cases as negative) - a problem recognised even by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
Recently, an ICMR advisory had stressed that states must test all people living in containment zones using rapid antigen testing kits, especially in the cities that are badly affected by the coronavirus outbreak. However, it added that an RT-PCR test should be done "if an individual develops symptoms following a negative RAT".
In this background, the daily numbers being released for India's rate of Covid-positivity could be misleading, shows an analysis of the data on testing for coronavirus, which the NDTV has access to.
The daily positivity rate in the country is 8.4 per cent - a rise from Wednesday's 7.7 per cent, government data showed today.
India registered a record 95,735 coronavirus cases in 24 hours taking the total number of infections to over 44.65 lakh. The country also recorded the highest deaths in a day with 1,172 fatalities.
There are over 9.19 lakh active cases in India, which is the second most-affected nation by the deadly virus in the world.
According to government data, almost 60 per cent of all cases reported in India come from five states - Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh - and 69 per cent of all deaths are also from these with the exception of Delhi replacing Uttar Pradesh.
Covid deaths in the national capital account for 6.1 per cent of all deaths reported in the country.
