Assam suspends use of COVID-19 rapid test kits following ICMR advisory

April 21: The Indian Council Of Medical Research (ICMR), the country’s nodal body in the fight against coronavirus has issued an advisory wherein it has asked the states not to use the new rapid antibody test for COVID-19 for two days. Several states, including Rajasthan, have now complained about the Rapid Test kits. Following the advisory from ICMR, Assam Health Minister, Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma informed in a tweet that, “In view of advisory issued by @ICMR state govt has suspended Rapid Anti Body tests, for next two days.”

Earlier, Himanta Biswa Sarma informed that the rapid test will start from Spanish Garden society in Guwahati from April 22, which has been declared as a containment zone. The minister added that though such type of rapid antibody tests are non-confirmatory, yet useful for mass surveillance in containment areas as it gives results within 15 minutes. He also informed that the central government has given 9600 Rapid Antibody test kits to Assam.

In view of advisory issued by @ICMR state govt has suspended Rapid Anti Body tests, for next two days.

— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) April 21, 2020

ICMR’s top scientist Dr Gangakhedkar said that in the next two days, eight ICMR institutes will carry out field tests using the rapid testing kits in different states for validation purposes and to find out if certain batches of the kits are faulty, following which feedback will be provided to states and the general public. “We are learning that the positive samples of RT-PCR are showing too much variation (when tested by rapid kits) in the range of 6 to 71%,” he added, referring to the percentage of successful detection made by the rapid testing kits in positive cases.

“Till then, we advise all states not to use this. In two days, we will be in a position to give a detailed report on this. If the batch of rapid test kits is found faulty, we will ask that company to replace all kits,” said Dr Gangakhedkar, who is the head of epidemiology at the ICMR.

Also Read: Rapid COVID-19 tests to begin in Assam from 22 April: Himanta