Brakes On New COVID-19 Study After Rapid Testing Comes To Abrupt Halt

The sudden stop to the use of Rapid Test Kits for COVID-19 has put brakes on a fresh survey to check if there is any community transmission of coronavirus within the hotspots.

The Indian Council of Medical Research -- which ordered the stoppage of rapid tests across the country today -- was planning to hold the survey in 80 districts across 25 states.

They were to examine 400 samples in each district to see if the transmission of the virus has reached the third stage -- when it is no longer possible to figure out the chain of infection.

"The survey which started today has now been put on hold due to quality issues with the Rapid Antibody kits. The survey will again start after these issues are fixed" a senior ICMR official told NDTV.

The ICMR had created a portal and a mobile application for the field officers to enter the survey data and there were plans to complete the survey in 10 days.

The use of rapid testing kits came to an abrupt halt today after Rajasthan claimed that the kits were giving incorrect results. State minister Raghu Sharma said the results were correct in only 5.4 per cent cases, and declared that they would no longer conduct rapid tests.

The ICMR said they have consulted two more states -- sources said Kerala and Tamil Nadu --and found that Rajasthan's findings were "true to an extent".

Assuring that it was investigating the matter, the ICMR said,  "If the batch of rapid test kits is found faulty, we will ask that company to replace all kits".