Centre advises states to increase use of RT-PCR tests for Covid-19 detection as cases surge

The Health Ministry advised states to improve the quality of overall testing by increasing the proportion of RT-PCR tests

With the number of Covid-19 cases on the rise in several states, the Centre on Sunday asked states to increase the proportion of the gold standard RT-PCR tests in the overall diagnostic mix and undertake an RT-PCR retest for those who tested negative in rapid antigen tests widely used by the states for surveillance.

India has been witnessing a rise in the active caseload over the past few days. More than 74% of the active cases are in Kerala and Maharashtra, however a spike has been seen in the daily cases in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. Punjab and J&K.

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In Maharashtra, in the last four weeks, the weekly cases have shown a rising trend and have increased from 18,200 to 21,300 while the weekly positivity has increased from 4.7% to 8%.

The zones of concern are Mumbai's suburban areas where the weekly cases shot up by 19%. In Nagpur, Amravati, Nashik, Akola and Yavatmal the weekly cases rose by 33%, 47%, 23%, 55% and 48%, respectively.

In Kerala during the same period, the average weekly cases fluctuated between a high of 42,000 to a low of 34,800. While the weekly positivity rate ranged from 13.9% to 8.9% in the state, a special cause of concern is Alappuzha where the rate went up to 10.7%.

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Punjab too is rapidly assuming critical dimension as the weekly cases in the last four weeks saw a rise from 1,300 to 1,682. In one district of SBS Nagar alone, the weekly positivity rate stands at 4.9% and the weekly cases have more than doubled from 165 to 364.

In five states - Maharashtra (8.1%), Kerala (7.9%), Andhra Pradesh (3.3%), Goa (3%) and Chandigarh (1.8%) - the weekly positivity rate is more than the national average of 1.79%.

The Union Health Ministry advised states to improve the quality of overall testing by increasing the proportion of RT-PCR tests. Moreover, negative rapid antigen test results are to be mandatorily followed by an RT-PCR test and no such negative persons are to be missed.

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The states have also been asked to refocus on strict and comprehensive surveillance as well as stringent containment in selected districts.

Regular monitoring of the mutant strains through testing followed by genome sequencing, monitoring of the emerging cluster of cases and improving the clinical management in districts reporting higher deaths are other strategies that should be followed up to arrest the upsurge.