Rapid antigen tests to screen those with symptoms at railway station, bus stands

Decision taken in view of surge in Covid cases, says health department

TT  |  Ranchi  | 20.03.21:In the wake of the rising number of Covid cases, the Jharkhand government has decided to resume Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT) on the go for symptomatic people at public places after relying solely on RT PCR tests since November last year owing to the poor efficiency of te antigen tests, officials said on Saturday.

The health department has sought RAT kits from the Centre for conducting Covid tests on the go at railway stations, airports, malls, bus stands and other public places. However, the consignment is yet to be delivered, officials said.

“Rapid antigen tests will be conducted only for symptomatic people who cannot be asked to wait at public places like bus stands and railway stations until the test result is out,” said National Health Mission (NHM) Director, Ravi Shankar Shukla. “RT PCR tests will continue to be the preferred method for Covid-19 tests at hospitals and clinics,” he added.

RAT are also conducted through nasal and throat swabs like RT PCR tests. However, the result of the test is out within an hour. Doctors say that RAT is a low sensitivity test when compared to RT PCR, and may not be as accurate as the latter. The RT PCR test, on the other hand, takes around 48 hours, but the results are more accurate, doctors from the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) said.

The state health department had in September last year directed that all Covid patients testing negative in RAT will have to undergo RT PCR test in order to rule out a coronavirus infection. The NHM director defended the government’s decision claiming that the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had not asked the government to stop conducting RAT.

“There is no such rule prohibiting the use of Rapid Antigen Tests. Its efficiency might not be as high as RT PCR, but it is still an effective way of testing symptomatic patients when you do not have enough time in hand,” said Shukla.

Jharkhand reported a triple-digit-spike in Covid cases on Friday. As many as 105 fresh cases against 75 Covid recoveries took the active caseload in the state to 653, as per NHM data. Ranchi reported 39 cases against 36 recoveries and the count of active cases reached 366 here. The capital also reported a Covid casualty, taking the Covid toll in Jharkhand to 1,095 on Friday. The active caseload has jumped from around 400 in February to over 650 in March.