Doctors wearing protective gear scan visitors at the entrance of a hospital in Srinagar (PTI photo)
NEW DELHI: The government is likely to expand its testing strategy for Covid-19 to allow use of rapid antibody tests in symptomatic cases in “hotspot” areas though these results will need to be confirmed by an RT-PCR test using throat or nasal swab to detect the presence of genetic material of the coronavirus.
The rapid tests will be conducted on symptomatic cases and even those testing negative in antibody tests will be home quarantined, official sources said. The effort is to contain hotspots that can become centres of transmission of the disease, a task that has become even more urgent in the wake of migrant workers reaching homes in certain areas that have been tagged as high-risk zones.
While a final decision on this is expected by Friday morning, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) issued an interim advisory on Thursday on the use of the rapid antibody test, also known as serology test. “The empowered