Community screening: 4 types of tests to ramp up testing to 17,300 per day in Andhra Pradesh

The RDT kits are being sent,” a senior official from the department explained. So far, 21,450 tests have been done (as of Saturday) to detect coronavirus in the State.
A Healthcare worker collecting blood sample from a person to test it using rapid testing kit. (Photo | EPS)
A Healthcare worker collecting blood sample from a person to test it using rapid testing kit. (Photo | EPS)

VIJAYAWADA: With the rapid diagnostic test (RDT) antibody and Truenat kits arriving, the State health department is planning to use them to ramp up community screening in the wake of COVID-19 cases with no travel history emerging. While the officials are working to have more virus research and diagnostic laboratories (VRDLs) up and running in the next one week, they are going to use more RDT and Truenat kits to do 17,300 tests a day from next week.

According to the plan devised earlier this week, a total of 79,025 tests were proposed to be done in one week. Of them, Truenat (TB diagnostic machines) would be 31,500, RDT tests would be 22,500, modified polymerase chain reaction (PCR) would be 17,500 and VRDL would be 7,525. “Since community screening has begun, we are increasing the usage of rapid and Truenat kits. Already the 240 Truenat kits available have been sent to 49 hospitals across 13 districts in the State.

The RDT kits are being sent,” a senior official from the department explained. So far, 21,450 tests have been done (as of Saturday) to detect coronavirus in the State. Using Truenat kits, 3,500 tests can be done in a day, while 6,500 a day can be done using the RDT antibody kits.

There is another type of test — CLIA (intravenous blood test) — which the State government is set to launch shortly.  “Five such equipment has been made available at Nellore, Guntur, Prakasam, Kurnool and Visakhapatnam hospitals. We can test 100 samples in an hour. So cumulatively, we can use those machines to do 5,000 tests a day. A purchase order has been placed for another 50,000 kits and they are expected to arrive next week,” a statement from the health department said.

Tests (cumulative)

9,794  April 14

11,613 April 15

13,511 April 16

17,559 April 17

21,450 April 18

How it works   
VDRL (swab) tests will be done in high risk zones and within containment clusters, while Truenat/RDT kits/CLIA would be used for moderate & low risk zones

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