Lucknow, June 23: Antigen tests will begin from Wednesday with the aim of quick screening and better treatment of coronavirus infection in the state.
Additional Chief Secretary, Home Awanish Kumar Awasthi said on Tuesday that antigen testing kits have arrived in the state. Now on Wednesday, antigen tests will begin in Noida, Ghaziabad, Lucknow, Gorakhpur, Varanasi and Kanpur. Corona positive patient will be detected immediately by this test.
βIn fact, in the big cities affected by corona infection in the state, now the prevalence of infection will be detected by antigen test. It has also been recognized by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). This test will also be done in large districts with RTPCR. In the first phase, it is being started in these cities. After this, antigen testing will be done in large districts of western Uttar Pradesh, especially in the National Capital Region (NCR),β Awasthi added.
Awasthi further told that with rapid testing kit, the result is revealed in just 30 minutes. However the initial result starts to clear in 15 minutes. The antigen test attempts to detect the presence of the virus in the upper part of the respiratory tract. For this, a swab sample is taken from within the nose and it is examined there. It does not have to send samples to the lab for testing.
ICMR mentioned in its instructions to the states that the sample will be collected by a trained health worker for the rapid antigen test and that all precautions, such as PPE kits, etc., must be taken into account, testing of samples will be completed within an hour. Those whose results will be negative will be subjected to RT-PCR test. There is no need to re-test if found positive. So far, it takes a little longer to get the RT-PCR test done for Covid. In addition to this, corona testing is also being done in all the districts through Truenat Beta Test (TBT) machines.
