India received 5 lakh rapid COVID-19 testing kits from China: Health Ministry

India has received much-awaited five lakh rapid COVID-19 testing kits from China and se are t meant for an early diagsis of disease rar for monitoring wher coronavirus hotspots in India are increasing or showing a declining trend, government said on Thursday.

Addressing a daily briefing on COVID-19 situation in country, chief of Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases at ICMR Dr Raman R Gangakhedkar said serologic rapid testing kits have been provided by two Chinese companies.

"se kits will be used to check antibodies which body of a person prepares as a weapon to fight a virus. re are different types of antibodies, one of which is immuglobulin M (IgM) that does t stay for more than a few days and spotting of IgM antibody means infection is recent, he said.

Whereas, detection of immuglobulin G (IgG) antibody indicates that our immune system is improving. If only IgG and IgM antibody is detected, it is assumed to be an old infection, Dr Gangakhedkar explained.

He said rapid antibody test kits procured are t meant for early diagsis, but "only for surveillance and trend checking".

five lakh kits include two types -- those that can confirm presence of IgG as well as IgM.

" tests can be done periodically to see trend. If we do an antibody test say after around two weeks, se will appear in only 80 per cent of people. That is why se tests are t used for early diagsis but are for surveillance," ICMR official said.

Till date, RT-PCR is ultimate test for detection of vel coronavirus, he asserted.

About reports suggesting that such kits are faulty, Dr Gangakhedkar ackwledged that sensitivity and specificity of se are less.

"Since rapid antibody tests are for monitoring and surveillance, re is concern with respect to testing kits being faulty. That concern was with respect to immune response alone," he explained.

He furr said that 2,90,401 samples have been tested so far, of which 30,043 were tested on Wednesday itself.

Out of tests carried out on Wednesday, 26,331 were done in laboratories under Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) network and 3,712 in private labs, he added.

Commenting on testing capacity of ICMR network, official said, "Working in one shift, more than 42,400 samples can be tested each day. If we work in two shifts, we will be able to test more than 78,200 samples daily."

Dr Gangakhedkar furr talked about use of doing pooled testing which, he said, will reduce cost and yield same result. This can be done in areas where positivity rate is low, he added.

According to health ministry, death toll due to vel coronavirus rose to 420 with 28 fatalities reported since Wednesday evening, while number of cases saw a jump of 826 to go up to 12,759 cases on Thursday.

On Thursday afteron, Joint Secretary in Health Ministry Lav Agarwal said, "If our case fatality rate is 3.3 per cent n percent of people who have recovered so far is around 12.02 per cent."

He also said that 325 districts in India have t reported any coronavirus case so far because of actions initiated at field level.

Also, implementation of containment strategies in some districts which earlier had reported COVID-19 cases, have yielded positive results. One of such place is Puducherry's Mahe district where case of infection has been reported in last 28 days. re are 27 or districts also where positive case has been reported in a fortnight, he said.

se 27 districts include Panipat and Rohtak in Haryana, Patna in Bihar, Nadia in West Bengal, and Wayanad and Kottayam in Kerala.

Replying to a query on wher summer heat will hinder spread of vel coronavirus, Dr Gangakhedkar said re is scientific evidence at moment to prove it.

About Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's allegation that India was t conducting eugh coronavirus tests, ICMR said, "India tests 24 people for one positive case, while Japan tests 11.7, Italy 6.7 and US tests 5.3. So, one cant say that India is testing less."

At press briefing, it was also informed that more than 16 lakh free meals have been served by Indian Railways. Five thousand beds in 17 dedicated Railway hospitals and hospital blocks have been identified and more than 5,000 isolation coaches readied, while over 8 lakh wagons have carried supplies throughout country.

Antibodies are usually developed in a body around 14 days after an infection.

Agarwal also said asked states to resume ante-natal check-ups and routine immunisation activities.