RT-PCR Testing Mandatory If Symptomatic Cases Found COVID-19 Negative in Rapid Antigen Tests: Centre

New Delhi, September 10: The Union Health Ministry issued a directive to its state counterparts on Thursday, asking them to conduct RT-PCR tests of those symptomatic patients who tested negative for COVID-19 in the rapid antigen tests (RAT). The Centre noted that in some states, with high concentration of coronavirus cases, symptomatic cases are not being tested after being cleared in the antigen tests. India's COVID-19 Tally Jumps to 44.65 Lakh With Highest Single-Day Spike of 95,735 New Coronavirus Cases in Past 24 Hours.

The guidelines of ICMR as well as the Union Health Ministry state that the following two specific categories of persons must necessarily be retested through RT-PCR tests: "All symptomatic (fever or cough or breathlessness) negative cases of RAT and asymptomatic negative cases of RAT that develop symptoms within 2 to 3 days of being tested negative".

In this background, the Health Ministry and 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 negative," said a joint letter written to states and union territories.

It was also reiterated in the joint letter by Health Ministry and ICMR 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.

The Health Ministry has also 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.

These teams shall analyse details of RAT conducted on a daily basis in the Districts and State and ensure that there are no delays in retesting of all symptomatic negative cases.

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.

(With PIB inputs)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 10, 2020 02:27 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).