On April 9, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) — the apex medical research body of the government — had issued new testing guidelines for COVID-19 and also allowed rapid antibody testing in India.
India has so far been using the RT-PCR (reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction) test on nasal or throat swab samples of suspected patients to test for coronavirus. The RT-PCR tests look for the presence of the virus in the DNA and take 7-8 hours to yield the result.
But what are rapid antibody tests?
The antibody tests involve taking blood samples to see if a person has developed antibodies against the virus. The presence of antibodies would mean the person may have developed resistance to the virus, if not complete immunity.
It merely takes 20-30 minutes to give the result. However, the ICMR has said that these tests are only for surveillance and should not be used for diagnosis.
At the daily press briefing on Thursday, Dr R R Gangakhedkar, head of epidemiology and infectious diseases, ICMR, said, “They (rapid antibody tests) have a sensitivity of over 80%. One needs to understand that these are serological tests. This is not for early diagnosis because it takes time for antibodies to develop. This is for surveillance in hotspots, to periodically check the spread of the disease.”
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He also said that the testing criteria for RT-PCR tests remains the same — symptomatic people with contact or travel history, healthcare workers, people with a severe acute respiratory infection or influenza-like illness in hotspots, and asymptomatic contacts of confirmed cases between 5-14 days of exposure.
The first consignment of 5 lakh rapid COVID-19 testing kits has arrived from China. On Friday, Rajasthan became the first state in the country to carry out rapid testing for COVID-19. Total 52 persons were tested at an urban PHC in Jaipur. All of them tested negative.