New Delhi: The Union government has asked States to allow all doctors — including private practitioners — to prescribe the Covid-19 test. The test should be prescribed to anyone who fits in the ICMR’s testing criteria.
States have also been urged to ramp up testing by using Rapid Antigen Point-of-Care tests in addition to RT-PCR tests. The antigen test is quicker and simpler and can be used in containment zones as well as hospitals.
According to the Health Ministry, “the ICMR is validating more such kits to increase the available options.”
On Wednesday, expressing concern over under-utilisation of testing capacity of private labs, the Union government urged States to take urgent steps to redress the situation so that testing and tracking efforts to combat Covid-19 are enhanced.
Pulling up States for not utilising the full potential of private labs, health secretary Preeti Sudan said in a letter, “The capacity utilisation of private laboratories for Covid-19 is grossly sub-optimal.”
Sudan urged States to ensure full utilisation of all Covid-19 testing laboratories. States/UTs have been advised to facilitate testing at the earliest by enabling all qualified medical practitioners, including private practitioners, to prescribe COVID test to any individual fulfilling the criteria for testing as per ICMR guidelines.
Rapid antigen-based testing kits which can check for the presence of the virus by testing blood samples from suspects by one company has also been validated and more such kits could get approved soon to give more testing options to people, the Centre said.