State begins RT PCR testing of about 2L rural residents

Sunday, 13 June 2021 | PNS | Ranchi

State begins RT PCR testing of about 2L rural residents

Sunday, 13 June 2021 | PNS | Ranchi

The Health Department has started conducting confirmatory RT PCR tests of the over 2 lakh rural residents who tested negative for Covid-19 in Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT) conducted during the Intensive Public Health Survey (IPHS) from May 25 to June 5, officials said on Saturday.

“In adherence to the ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) guidelines, we will conduct confirmatory RT PCR tests of all the rural residents who tested negative in RAT during the survey. The process has already begun at the Panchayat level,” said the nodal officer of health department’s Information, Education and Communication (IEC) wing, Dr Siddharth Tripathi.

Tripathi admitted that the Government decided to conduct rapid tests instead of Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT PCR) during the survey as the former was less time-consuming and the health infrastructure in rural Jharkhand was not strong enough to conduct large scale RT PCR tests on the go. RAT is also done with nasal and throat swab, but it takes only one hour to show Covid test results. On the other hand, RT PCR tests take at least 48 hours.

The confirmatory tests, officials said, were necessary as all the residents who underwent Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) during the survey showed symptoms of Covid-19. As per survey data, of the over 2.63 crore people surveyed during IPHS, at least 2,08,556 showed symptoms of Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) or Influenza Like Illness (ILA).

All the 2 lakh-odd residents with SARI and ILA symptoms underwent rapid tests during the survey, but only 981 of them were found infected by novel coronavirus. The low positivity rate among such individuals, officials said, could be attributed to the lower efficacy of rapid tests as compared to RT PCR in detecting Covid-19.

As per the data compiled by the health department, the positivity rate in Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) was less than 1 per cent in Jharkhand, while that in RT PCR was 2.3 per cent. The positivity rate in the TrueNat test was highest at 7 per cent.

The Covid positivity rate during the IPHS was only 0.47 per cent, which was lower than the cumulative positivity rate of over 3.5 per cent in Jharkhand, officials said.

During the survey, it was also found that 16,668 of the surveyed people showed symptoms of tuberculosis, while 1,17,622 suffered from diabetes. As per the survey data, at least 119026 rural residents suffered from hypertension.