To increase the testing capacity in Chandigarh, more antigen tests were being conducted in comparison to RT-PCR tests since October last year and this practice continued till February this year.
Naina Mishra
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, August 18
Rapid Antigen tests for diagnosing Covid-19 made for 31 per cent of the total tests conducted since April 2020 last year, while 69 per cent tests were conducted through the RT-PCR method in the city.
Of the 6,21,067 tests conducted since April last year, 1,94,836 were conducted using Rapid Antigen kits and the remaining 4,26,231 through the gold standard RT-PCR method.
To increase the testing capacity in Chandigarh, more antigen tests were being conducted in comparison to RT-PCR tests since October last year and this practice continued till February this year.
Around 57.5 per cent Covid tests were conducted using the antigen method in February this year. In March, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had written to Chandigarh that “although the UT has increased testing by 34 per cent in the past four weeks, it has a low share of RT-PCR tests, averaging at 39 per cent since four weeks. The proportion of RT-PCR tests needs to be brought up to more than 70 per cent of the total tests on priority.”
In August, the share of RT-PCR tests increased to 81 per cent in Chandigarh.
The sensitivity of antigen method is less compared to the RT-PCR method. Therefore, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has recommended that all symptomatic individuals who test negative by the antigen method must be tested by the RT-PCR method.