Govt, ICMR Urge States To Retest Rapid Test Negative Cases Using RT-PCR

New Delhi: As nearly a lakh cases were detected in a day, the Union Health Ministry & ICMR have jointly asked all states and union territories to mandatorily carry retests of all symptomatic negative cases of Rapid Antigen Tests through RT-PCR.

RT-PCR is considered the gold standard of testing but takes time and is expensive. Rapid antigen tests are known to give false negatives.

“Health Ministry urges States/UTs to Mandatorily retest all Symptomatic Negative Cases of Rapid Antigen Tests through RT-PCR,” the Union Health Ministry tweeted.

This way it will be ensured that such symptomatic negative cases do not spread the disease among their contacts and will also help in early isolation or hospitalisation.

Overall, the number of cases have crossed 44 lakh and the toll has reached 75,062.  A total of 34,71,783 people have recovered so far.

The fatality rate has dropped to 1.68 per cent while the recovery rate stands at 77.74 per cent.