Covid-19 Rapid tests to find out local infection

Hyderabad: As part of ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research)'s efforts to find out community spread of Covid-19, rapid testing is being done in 82 districts across the country, including Nalgonda, Kamareddy and Jangaon districts in Telangana.

This survey will be done over two-days period next week. The Government of Telangana has not preferred rapid testing process as yet in the State stating that they have not witnessed community spread of the virus, but this exercise is being carried out by the Centre across the country, including Telangana.

According to sources, ICMR is exploring all types of rapid kits available at present in view of some faulty kits reported from China which are not yielding proper results.

An analysis of other rapid kits from other countries like South Korea, which have yielded good results, is being done and a final call is likely to be taken early next week after which the nation-wide survey will be taken up across the country at the same time.

The National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), which is part of ICMR, has been entrusted to conduct the survey in Telangana. The state government's support was sought and the three district Collectors were sent communication to assist NIN teams with logistic and manpower support wherever required.

Five teams from NIN with each team comprising three members, including a medical officer, technical assistant and a lab technician will be sent to each of the three identified districts for the survey.

Four-hundred persons in the age-group of 18 to 40 years would be asked to undergo the antibodies test for presence of any related infection in their body.

The samples will be collected from seven villages and three wards in urban areas. The survey teams will be visiting houses randomly for this exercise and the sample will be collected in the house itself with test result to be determined in flat 15 minutes, an official said.

The three districts in Telangana were chosen by the ICMR. It shortlisted 82 districts across the country based on seriously affected, moderately affected and less or nil affected districts.

As far as Telangana is concerned, Jangaon is one of the corona-free districts with nil positive cases while Nalgonda and Kamareddy are on hotspot districts list which have large outbreak of Covid-19 cases.