India receives 5 lakh testing kits from 2 Chinese firms
India on Thursday received a total of five lakh rapid testing kits from two different Chinese companies, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said. The kits, however, will not be used for diagnostic testing for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). They will instead be used for surveillance of the outbreak. Meanwhile, the Centre also elaborated on allegations of India's low testing rate.
Dr. Raman R Gangakhedkar, the head of Epidemiology and Communicable diseases at ICMR, said at Thursday's press briefing that India has received five lakh rapid testing kits from two Chinese firms. He said these kits have over 80% sensitivity and over 84% specificity. Responding to queries of the kits being "faulty," Dr. Gangakhedkar said the kits are not meant for early diagnostic tests.
"These rapid antibody tests are not for early diagnostic tests," Dr. Gangakhedkar said, adding that the kits have only 80% sensitivity and would thus misdiagnose approximately 20% of the positive cases. However, the kits are meant to be used to map the trend of the outbreak, for example, to see whether the number of cases is rising or falling in hotspots, he said.
Dr. Gangakhedkar also said that thus far, 2,90,401 persons have been tested for COVID-19 in India, including 30,043 who were tested on Wednesday. He said, "In a nine-hour shift, the collective testing capacity of our labs is 42,418 per day which can be increased to 78,227 per day with double shifts." These tests are being conducted using the RT-PCR technique.
When asked about Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's allegations of a low testing rate of 199 per million tests, Dr. Gangakhedkar said comparing the number of tests against the entire 130 crore population of India is not reasonable. "The entire population is not vulnerable," he said, "There are 330-something districts with no COVID-19 cases." He also said the rate of people testing positive is low.
Dr. Gangakhedkar said, in India, only one in 24 people tested for COVID-19 reported positive. Comparatively, he said, in Japan, 11.7 persons who were tested were found positive; the number was 6.7 in Italy, 5.3 in the United States, and 3.4 in the United Kingdom.
Meanwhile, Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said India's fatality rate due to COVID-19 is 3.3% while the recovery rate is 12.02%. He said 325 Indian districts have no COVID-19 cases and in Puducherry's Mahe district, there have been no new cases in the past 28 days. Separately, he said, 27 other districts have not reported any new cases in the past 14 days.
Patna (Bihar), South Goa (Goa), Panipat (Haryana), Rajouri (Jammu and Kashmir), Shivpuri (Madhya Pradesh), West Imphal (Manipur), Aizwal West (Mizoram), SPS Nagar (Punjab), Pratapgarh (Rajasthan), Bhadradri Kothagudem (Telangana), Pilibhit (Uttar Pradesh), Pauri Garhwal (Uttarakhand), and Nadia (West Bengal). Other districts are Chhattisgarh's Bilaspur, Durg, Rajnandgaon, and Raipur; Gujarat's Gir Somnath and Porbandar; Karnataka's Davanagere, Kodagu, Tumakuru, Udupi, and Ballari; and Kerala's Wayanad and Kottayam.
Further, Agarwal said the Health Minister and Ministers of State for Health held a video conference with health functionaries and field officers of the World Health Organisation to discuss a micro-plan for cluster and outbreak containment at the district-level. An action plan was discussed detailing how the Health Ministry can utilize the services of the WHO polio surveillance team in the fight against COVID-19.
