Telangana Government floated tenders for Covid-19 rapid antibody testing kits

Hyderabad: The Telangana government has decided to purchase COVID-19 rapid antibody testing kits to conduct 50,000 tests and IgG ELISA test kits with antibody assay to conduct 10,000 tests. The kits which are bought will be supplied to the government hospitals and medical colleges.

Surprisingly, the decision came after few days after Health Minister Eatala Rajender criticised other states for the usage of rapid antibody testing for COVID-19. He also pointed at that time that RT-PCR test continues to be the standard way in testing for the novel Corona virus.

Senior officials of Health Department and superintendents of government hospitals also didn't have a clarity on the subject. In Delhi, after facing high number of COVID-19 cases, the government started using antibody testing kits soon after the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) released a note in support of using rapid antibody testing kits in government and private healthcare centres.

Though, Telangana has not recorded as many cases as Delhi, the officials were facing severe criticism for badly low testing. The State had even stopped the collection of samples for a few days, after the samples loaded up in government labs. Now, the State government has presented a tender for supply of rapid antibody testing kits just a day after ICMR sent out a note in support of their usage.