BHUBANESWAR: Even as Odisha has ramped up testing to over 50,000 tests a day, its almost total dependance on rapid antigen tests (RATs) may be failing the objective of maximum detection of Covid-19 cases and containing its spread, experts are warning.
As high as 90 per cent (pc) of tests are being conducted through RAT kits while the gold standard RT-PCR tests are declining in numbers by each passing day. The curtailment of RT-PCR tests to a large extent has come as a big surprise as the State Government has always claimed to be the first off the block in the country in terms of readying infrastructure and facilities, including testing for tackling Covid-19. It had even claimed to have got enough RT-PCR machines to scale up testing to requirement.
However, that has not been the case. It has been scaling up RATs on a massive scale while the RT-PCRs have almost been pushed to the minimum. The RAT kits have an accuracy range of only 50 to 80 per cent and the State may be missing out a large number of Covid positive cases, experts observed.
The State Government that took three months to conduct first two lakh tests claimed to have tested 2.06 lakh samples in just four days. But there is a stark difference between the tests conducted then and now. While the first two lakh were all RT-PCR tests, only 12 pc of the present tests are done through RT-PCR.
The test is now conducted for only the symptomatic patients and frontline Covid warriors.
Although 10,240 RT-PCR tests were conducted on August 15, since than it has come down drastically with the Government focusing more on rapid antigen tests (RATs). More than 90 pc of the tests conducted in the last three days are RATs.
While States like Tamil Nadu has stopped conducting antigen tests due to the low accuracy rate, Odisha’s over reliance on ARTs has left the health experts and virologists disappointed. They termed the efforts of the Government misdirected amid the surge in Covid-19 cases.
Noted virologist, who had headed the expert panel formed by Odisha Government to tackle JE virus outbreak in 2016, Dr T Jacob John said the antigen test are not that much sensitive and in the process a lot of infection is actually missed.
“The states and cities, where the epidemic has matured, are doing antigen tests for the purpose of slowing down the spread. Odisha at present is like Delhi was four months ago. The purpose of testing in Odisha is different than the purpose of testing in Delhi these days,” he said.
Dr John said the first priority in Odisha, Jharkhand and Bihar, where the epidemic is young, should be to find out more cases and reduce the speed of spread, for which RT-PCR test is a must.
“Where the epidemic is established, the antigen test is enough as nothing is going to change there and the final diagnosis is not based on the tests. If you come to community transmission phase, you need to be watchful and focus on diagnosing the disease,” he advised and warned that the containment efforts could get hampered if cases are missed.
Health experts also pointed out that the testing protocol should be smart and the Government should not give any chance to people who never get diagnosed but keep spreading the infection to others.
Additional Chief Secretary of Health department PK Mohapatra said the number of RT-PCR tests has come down due to temporary shutdown of a few labs after health professionals involved in testing found positive.
“The PCR tests will pick up soon,” he said and insisted that on an average 10,000 RT-PCR tests in the State is enough. “However, we are conducting tests of symptomatic persons found negative in RAT through RT-PCR as suggested by the ICMR,” he added.