Rajasthan has begun rapid testing for the Covid-19 infection with the help of newly-acquired rapid antibody testing kits which will help speed up the testing time and detect carriers or superspreaders of the Sars-Cov 2 virus who could potentially infect others.
Rajasthan acquired 10,000 rapid testing kits on Friday and 52 samples were tested, all of which were negative. On Saturday, 5000 tests were conducted in the walled city and other areas.
The health department is going beyond random sampling to detect carriers of the Covid-19 virus who pose a risk to others. The ICMR has also advised antibody tests in hotspots of the coronavirus which will ensure faster detection of cases and give more time to authorities to contain community spread. Once a person tests positive after the antibody test, the PCR test has to be done to confirm the result.
The random sampling done in clusters in Ramganj to detect Covid-19 cases has shown that 6 to 10 percent of people are infected, said Ajitabh Sharma, the nodal officer for Covid-19 prevention in Jaipur district.
He said to prevent the spread of the virus; the focus is on identifying the asymptomatic carriers who can spread it further.
He said the government has identified superspreaders such as provision store owners, dairy booth owners, milk suppliers and health workers and random tests will be carried out on them to find if any of them is a superspreader.
Rohit Singh, additional chief secretary, health had said on Friday that 5000 rapid tests would be done in Ramganj on Saturday in addition to the ongoing PCR based tests. “This will help us in the ongoing containment exercise as the people who test positive will be quickly isolated to prevent further spread. This is part of our strategy to use an optimal mix of both types of tests for effective containment in an aggressive manner,” he said.
With these kits, more than 500 samples can be taken in a day. Dr KK Sharma, director, public health said the kits will help doctors speed up the process of testing. Since the test results are known in 15-20 minutes, it will save time and more people can be tested, he said.
He said the rapid test will detect asymptomatic persons who have developed antibodies against the virus and can become carriers and pose a threat to other vulnerable people.
He said in the containment zone in Ramganj, spread in a 1 km radius of a hotspot, random sampling and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing will be continued as it is being done. In the 5 km buffer zone outside Ramganj, the antibody tests will be done to detect carriers who can then be confirmed through a PCR test.
Rajasthan became the first state to conduct the rapid tests on Friday as 52 people in the walled city were tested with these kits. All of them tested negative. The state will get 1 lakh testing kits soon, said health minister Raghu Sharma.
Meanwhile, 100 kits were handed over to the SMS medical college on Friday for testing their reliability. After the virology department approves the kits, a report will be given to the health department which will give the go-ahead for their distribution throughout the state.
Due to a shortage of testing kits, around 5000 of samples have piled up and reports could not be given. Since there are many people in quarantine and some could be in serious condition, it is important the doctors get reports so they can act accordingly.
