New Delhi: Amid criticism over India not conducting enough tests despite significant rise in coronavirus cases, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Tuesday laid down the roadmap for pool testing that may be conducted in less-affected areas of the country.
The announcement came as India registered 10,815 cases with the death toll toughing 353. Of the total cases, 9,272 are active, while 1,189 patients have been cured. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said 31 deaths and 1,211 fresh cases were reported in the last 24 hours.
The process of pool testing involves putting five swab samples together and testing them using a single reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test.
If the test result is negative, it means that all the samples tested are negative. If the test result is positive, everyone whose samples were part of the test have to be tested separately to identify positive cases.
Sources said pool testing will help utilise available resources in a much better manner. ICMR said that not more than five samples should be tested at a time.
The advisory laid out by ICMR talks about how it will help increase the capacity of laboratories to screen increasing number of samples using molecular testing for 'surveillance' and will help study possible community transmission. A feasibility study has shown the efficacy of the same when the prevalence rate of infection is low.
ICMR said this method of testing will be done in areas where the incidence of the infection is low, less than two per cent.
In areas where the incidence is between two to five per cent, pool testing can be done only on asymptomatic persons, ICMR said. The asymptomatic individuals should not be healthcare workers and should have had no contact with a known case of COVID-19.
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