The Union Health Ministry on Thursday noted with concern the fact that “some large States were not following up symptomatic negative cases tested by Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT) by RT-PCT testing”.
Coming down heavily on these States, the Ministry said that as per its and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines , two specific categories of persons must necessarily be retested through RT-PCR tests.
“This includes all symptomatic [fever or cough or breathlessness] negative cases of Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT) and asymptomatic negative cases of RAT that develop symptoms within 2 to 3 days of being tested negative,’’ said a senior Health Ministry official.
Letter to States
The Ministry and the ICMR have jointly written to all the States/UTs and urged them to ensure that the all symptomatic negative cases of RAT are mandatorily retested using the RT-PCR test.
“This is necessary to ensure that such symptomatic negative cases do not remain untested and do not spread the disease among their contacts. This will also ensure early detection and isolation/hospitalization of such false negatives. The joint letter reiterates that while the RAT is being used to increase access and availability of testing in the field, RT-PCR remains the gold standard of COVID-19 tests,’’ said the Ministry.
Interactive map of confirmed coronavirus cases in India
Monitoring mechanism
It urged the States/UTs to urgently establish a monitoring mechanism in every district (a designated officer or a team) and at the State level to follow up such cases.
Monitoring teams at the district-level shall analyse details of RAT conducted on a daily basis and ensure that there were no delays in retesting of all symptomatic negative cases, it stated.
“The aim of States/UTs should be to ensure that no potentially positive case is missed out. They have also been advised to undertake an analysis on a regular basis to monitor the incidence of positives during the RT-PCR tests conducted as a follow up,’’ it noted.
State-wise tracker for coronavirus cases, deaths and testing rates
9 most-hit States
Data released by the Ministry on Thursday said more than 74% of the total active COVID cases were in nine most-affected States.
“Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh presently contribute 49% of total active cases. Maharashtra is leading this tally with more than 2,50,000 whereas Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh follow with more than 97,000 each,’’ said the Ministry.
A total of 1,172 deaths have been registered in the past 24 hours. “32% of deaths reported yesterday are from Maharashtra with 380 deaths, followed by Karnataka with 128 deaths, and Tamil Nadu with 78 deaths. Of the total deaths, 69% are concentrated in five States/UT of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Delhi and Andhra Pradesh,’’ it added.
