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NEW DELHI: A moderate to very high percentage of negative results in antigen tests for Covid-19 are turning out to be positive in RT-PCR testing, making states like Maharashtra treat initial positivity rates with increasing suspicion and prompting others like Tamil Nadu to rely exclusively on the real-time PCR test from the get-go.
Data from two major civic laboratories in Mumbai shows that up to 65% of symptomatic patients who had tested negative for the novel coronavirus in antigen tests were later confirmed positive in RT-PCR testing.
While this underscores the risk of false negatives in rapid antigen testing, Delhi has reported a significantly higher success rate than Maharashtra using the same method. Between June 18 and July