Nearly 70 per cent of the COVID-19 testing load in Mysuru, a high-risk district, is being handled with the Rapid Antigen Test (RAT). The RATs were not confined only to the city now with the testing facility extended to the towns with the increase in the procurement of the testing kits.
About 2,000 swab samples were being tested daily across the district and closely 70-80 per cent of them were subjected to the rapid tests and the rest to the RT-PCR test.
So far, Mysuru has received nearly 20,000 kits for the rapid tests and is expected to get more kits by Monday. “RT-PCR test is considered the most effective method of testing for COVID-19 but it’s time consuming and costly while the RATs are quicker with results in 30 minutes,” a doctor said.
The rapid tests were launched in Mysuru from July 18 after the district administration launched intensive screening of the population in NR constituency here where the infections and deaths were spiralling. With the idea of carrying out screening on ‘Dharavi model’ in the constituency and preventing the deaths, the RAT kits were procured and the rapid tests managed to spot the infected persons during the door-to-door screening/testing.
Sources told The Hindu that a person tested negative in RAT despite having symptoms will be subjected to Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) for validation. If the sample tests negative in RT-PCR, the person is declared not infected.
Till Thursday (August 6), 51,474 samples had been tested in Mysuru and more than 90-95 per cent of them had been tested by the government.
“The tests outside the government jurisdiction are done only in two ICMR-certified private facilities – one given permission for carrying out the RT-PCR tests and another given approval to carry out rapid tests,” the sources said.
Besides the hi-tech VRDL at the State-run KR Hospital of MMCRI and the designated COVID-19 hospital, the RT-PCR tests are now done even in taluk hospitals with the kits made available to them.
Meanwhile, more than 965 containment zones had been de-notified across the district. Out of 2,107 containment zones that had been declared with the report of COVID-19 cases, the district has 1,142 containment zones which are active. Nearly 80 per cent of the containment zones are located within the city limits.
A government health official, who is familiar with the testing strategy, said nearly 20 out of 100 rapid tests are validated using RT-PCR kits. A sample testing negative in RAT is sent to the RT-PCR test for confirmation if the person was carrying the symptoms, and the test result would be made available the next day. “We are following this protocol since the start of rapid tests based on ICMR guidelines.”
