TS can only perform 27K RT-PCR tests a day, but Eatala says all’s well

HYDERABAD: Telangana can only conduct about 27,000 RT-PCR tests in a day, and a majority of those — around 20,000 tests — are performed at private healthcare facilities, informed Health Minister Eatala Rajender while speaking to the media on Saturday. This means that the State, which at present is conducting more than one lakh Covid-19 tests per day, will not be able to ensure that 70 per cent of the tests are RT-PCR, as recommended to the States by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

Rajender, however, defended the low capacity of RT-PCR tests in government healthcare facilities, stating that Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT) were 90 per cent accurate, gave quicker results and were more effective in containing the spread, as it takes more than a day for an RT-PCR test result. 

He added, “The Chief Minister has issued directions to increase RT-PCR testing capacity in the State. It will be done soon. However, RAT will be our primary mode of virus detection. RT-PCR tests need more equipment, personnel and time. Enhancement of the RT-PCR capacity cannot take place overnight during a pandemic.” He further said that with RAT, health authorities could take up extensive testing in the villages as well.

State low on vaccine
Highlighting that Telangana is left with only 5.66 lakh doses of Covid-19 vaccine, which would barely last three days,  Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar wrote a letter to the Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Saturday, seeking the  supply of at least 30 lakh vaccine doses for the  next 15 days. The CS, in his letter, said that the State had ramped up the immunisation drive, and was vaccinating as many as 1.15 lakh persons in a day. Soon, it will be increased to 2 lakh per day, he said.