ICMR revises guidelines; TB testing machines will now be used for confirming COVID cases

In a bid to ramp up the testing capacity, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has issued revised guidelines for TrueNat testing and said that it is now a comprehensive assay for screening and confirmation of COVID-19 cases. Earlier on April 10, the ICMR had approved the use of TrueNat system for conducting coronavirus tests but recommended it only as a screening test.

In its revised guidelines, the apex health body has said:  "TrueNat system is now a comprehensive assay for screening and confirmation of COVID-19 cases". According to the guidelines, all samples of suspect COVID-19 should be first tested by the E gene screening assay. All negatives are to be considered as true negatives. All positive samples should be subjected to confirmation by another step.

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The step 2 is RdRp gene confirmatory assay. All samples that test positive by this assay must be considered as true positive. "No further RT-PCR based confirmation is required for samples that are positive after step 2 of the assay," the revised guidelines stated. All positive and negative results must be reported to the ICMR portal in real-time manner. 

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ICMR revises testing guidelines

In a massive development on Monday, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), on Monday, has revised its testing strategy for Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases. As per the new guidelines, asymptomatic direct and high-risk contacts of COVID-19 positive patients must be tested between 5-10 days of coming into contact. 

READ | ICMR revises testing guidelines; asymptomatic & high risk to be tested between 5-10 days

Coronavirus count in India

The death toll due to COVID-19 on Wednesday rose to 3,303 and the number of cases climbed to 1,06,750 in the country, registering an increase of 140 deaths and a record spike of 5,611 cases in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry.

The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 61,149, while 42,297 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, it said. "Thus, around 39.62 percent patients have recovered so far," a senior health ministry official said. The total confirmed cases include foreigners.

Of the 140 deaths reported since Monday morning, 76 were from Maharashtra, 25 from Gujarat, six each from West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh, five each from Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, three each from Tamil Nadu Karnataka and Telangana, two each from Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir and one each from Odhisha and Punjab.

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