New Delhi, April 21: The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Tuesday urged all the states not to use the rapid tests kits for COVID-19 for next 2 days after there were reports claiming their inaccuracy. Dr Raman R Gangakhedkar, Head of epidemiology and communicable diseases at ICMR said an advisory for the same will be issued in the next 2 days. "States are advised not to use rapid testing kits for two days. A lot of variations, kits will be tested and validated by on-ground teams and we will give advisory in the next 2 days", Gangakhedkar said. Govt Creates Master Database of Healthcare Professionals and Volunteers on covidwarriors.gov.in.

The decision to stop using rapid test kits for testing COVID-19 comes after  Rajasthan stopped the use of these kits as they were showing only 5.4 per cent accuracy in testing coronavirus cases. State Health Minister Raghu Sharma said the kits, used on COVID-19 positive patients, showed them negative too. India’s COVID-19 Tally Rises to 18,601, Death Toll Mounts to 590.

Here's What Dr Raman R Gangakhedkar of ICMR  Said:

The ICMR has so far tested 4,49,810 COVID-19 samples in India. Giving details about the samples tested, Gangakhedkar said 35,852 samples were tested on Monday, of which 29,776 samples were tested in 201 ICMR network labs and remaining 6,076 samples were tested in 86 private labs.

Gangakhedkar further added saying that coronavirus is a new disease and in the last 3 and half months science has progressed and developed PCR tests, 5 vaccines have gone into human trial phase out of 70 vaccine candidates. He added saying that it has never happened before in case of any other disease.

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry on Tuesday said that 61 additional districts from 23 States/UT in India have not reported any fresh cases in last 14 days. On April 21, a total of four new districts have been included in the list which include Latur, Osmanabad, Hingoli & Washim in Maharashtra.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 21, 2020 04:59 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).