New Delhi: Each of the 11 administrative districts of Delhi will now have separate designated laboratories to test Covid-19 samples. This has been done to reduce pendency of test results, even as India has ramped up testing capacity to 3 lakh tests per day.
During a review meeting held at the Union health ministry on 28 April, officials from various districts of Delhi had flagged the problem of delayed test results telling on containment and contact-tracing in the city. The positivity rate in Delhi has crossed the 30 per cent mark, and it is even higher in some districts.
At the health ministry meeting, officials had said test results sometimes take five to six days and crucial time is lost in the containment zones in the process.
In a statement issued Tuesday, the Ministry of Health said: “In order to enhance the testing capacity in Delhi, each of the 11 districts shall now have assigned labs for exclusively testing the samples from the respective districts. The samples from each district are being sent to these labs to ensure timely testing and getting the results without any delay. Currently there are 42 labs in Delhi with per day testing capacity of approx. 17000.”
Following an all-party meeting earlier this week, Home Minister Amit Shah had announced on Twitter that Delhi’s testing numbers would be increased three times in six days.
“One of the problems in Delhi is the high pendency. Having designated laboratories for various districts would take care of that problem because the workflow would get streamlined,” said a senior health official.
Also read: Early data from alternative medicine trials shows promising results against Covid: AYUSH secy
Health experts welcome rapid antigen tests
Delhi’s high positivity is also a reason why health experts are welcoming the Indian Council of Medical Research’s Monday decision introducing rapid antigen tests in containment zones and hospitals etc.
“This is very good for use on the field when instead of transporting a large number of cases one can test them in the field. The negatives need to be tested with RT-PCR again so it probably does not make sense for use in all settings. But in my institute for example, we are getting positivity rates of 45%. When positives are that high the antigen tests are very useful. The world has been waiting for one. Though I have not used it yet myself, it does make very good sense to stratify samples and use it,” said Dr Anurag Agarwal, Director, Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology.
The USFDA had given its nod for one rapid antigen test some time back. Japan too has approved its use.
The Standard Q COVID-19 Ag detection kit detects the SARS-CoV2 antigen in 15 minutes. The test has a very high specificity (ability to detect true negatives) in the 99.3-100% range. The sensitivity of the test ( ability to detect true positives) ranges from 50.6% to 84%.
The antigen test can be conducted on site within one hour of sample collection. Domestic manufacturing capacity of antigen test kits in the country currently is around 10 million in a month.
The health ministry also said the capacity to test Covid samples now stands at 3 lakh per day. The total number of samples tested thus far is 59,21,069 with 1,54,935 samples tested in the last 24 hours. Of the 907 laboratories, 659 are in the government sector and 248 in the private sector.
The total number of Covid cases currently stands at 3,43,091 with 10,667 new cases and 470 more deaths in the last 24 hours. The total death toll currently stands at 9,900.
Also read: ‘Coincidental, not causal’: Experts say Delhi’s Covid surge and peak summer are not linked