NEW DELHI: The Delhi government has decided to increase the number of sampling done through RT-PCR tests in the national capital. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said that he has instructed officials in all districts to comply with the guidelines ste by the ICMR.
“Existing guidelines say that if any patient’s antigen test is negative but has symptoms, RT-PCR test must be done on him.
I directed the officers today to ensure strict compliance of these guidelines (sic),” Kejriwal tweeted. According to sources, an instruction has been issued to all districts to increase the number of RT-PCRs in all its testing centres to atleast 11,000 tests per day.
There has been a heavy reliance on Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT) to identify more cases. As per governemt’s affidavit given in the Delhi High Court, 4,04,141 lakh rapid tests were carried out in Delhi between June 18 and July 24. Out of the total, only 2,818 who showed symptoms were re-tested through RT-PCR, of which 404 tested positive.
Approximately two weeks ago, in an HC hearing, the government had mentioned that from June 18 till July 15, the state had done 2,81,555 RAT tests of which 19,480 came positive. Amongst those who undertook RAT, only 1,365 were followed up with an RT-PCR test of which 243 tested positive.
According to data available in the government’s Wednesday health bulletin, 12,318 RATs were conducted of which only 5,074 were followed up with RTPCR tests.
The HC in a recent hearing also pulled up the state government over its over-dependence on RATs. A bench of Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Subramonium Prasad said that while Delhi should be carrying out 11,000 RTPCR tests per day as capable by 54 labs including public and private, not more than 6,000 RT-PCR tests were being conducted daily.
“ICMR never said that RT-PCR, which is the gold standard test, be replaced with RAT. In such a scenario how can the government go with RAT as its front line test, when its rate of false negatives is very high,” the bench stated. The HC also asked the government why a doctor’s prescription was required for undergoing Covid testing.