He also informed that over the next two days, ICMR will be sending eight expert teams on the ground to asses and validate the results.
New Delhi| The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Tuesday advised states not to use the new rapid testing kits to detect coronavirus infection for the next two days after several complaints in the variations in the accuracy of results were made across the regions.
Raman R Gangakhedkar, head of Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases at ICMR, addressing the media at daily Covid-19 briefing said, “We got a complaint of less detection from one state. So we spoke to three states and found that a lot of variation is there in the accuracy of test results of positive samples, in some places it is 6 percent while others it is 71 percent.”
“This is not a good thing because when such a huge variation is seen we need to investigate further even if it is the first generation of the test. This disease is only 3.5-month-old so all technologies will be refined over time but we can’t ignore these findings,” he further added.
He also informed that over the next two days, ICMR will be sending eight expert teams on the ground to asses and validate the results.
“Hence, all states are requested to not use the rapid testing kits on the field for the next two days,” Gangakhedkar added.
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