On Monday, the Delhi High Court asked the Delhi government the reason why it was conducting rapid antigen testing (RAT), as it has a high rate of false negative results as compared to RT-PCR, which is at present the primary mode of COVID-19 testing. A bench of Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Subramonium Prasad had asked this question.

The bench is of the opinion that as per the National Centre for Disease Control’s (NCDC) sero-survey report, there is a high rate of false negatives of RAT. Therefore, they asked why RAT was used as the frontline test and RT-PCR is being recommended for only symptomatic patients. In such a situation, the Delhi government is carrying RAT as its front line test, whereas RT-PCR is being recommended for only those patients who were symptomatic.

The bench observed that the sero-survey in Delhi that was carried out by the NCDC had indicated that above 22.86 per cent of the population were exposed to coronavirus without realizing as they were possibly asymptomatic. It further said that there were 54 labs, public and private, in the national capital that are capable of conducting 11,000 RT-PCR tests per day. But between 15thJuly to 23rd July, the number of RT-PCR tests per day had not even crossed 6,000. Also, ICMR never mentioned RT-PCR, the gold standard test to be replaced with RAT. The High Court had also asked the Delhi government why a doctor’s prescription was necessary for undergoing COVID testing. It had also asked NCDC about its short-term recommendations after the sero-survey report to manage the coronavirus infection.

The bench had asked the Delhi government to “strictly” follow the guidelines and recommendations on COVID testing as issued by ICMR and not to follow its own interpretation. The Delhi government’s standing counsel Satyakam had communicated to the bench that the health department was strictly following ICMR’s guidelines. It states that people who tested negative for RAT but show influenza like illness (ILI) have to undergo RT-PCR. Advocate Rakesh Malhotra had opposed this stand, who sought direction to the Delhi government for rapid testing of COVID-19 cases.

He told the bench that ICMR had only stated that patients who show ILI and test negative in RAT have to go for RT-PCR. This approach is not applicable to those patients who have severe acute respiratory illness (SARI). But, the Delhi government has included SARI in the list of high-risk groups who have to first undergo RAT. Anurag Ahluwalia, a representative of ICMR by central government standing counsel, told the bench that it never recommended SARI for RAT and that it was not comparable to ILI.

On Monday, Delhi had reported 613 fresh cases in the last 24 hours, the lowest daily rise in the last two months. The total cases had reached to 1, 31,219 and the death count rose to 3853 with 26 fatalities reported. In the last week, 5000 RT PCR tests were performed, but it significantly dropped down on Monday to 3,821 tests.

Source: The Indian Express