J&K: Rapid antibody tests to be conducted at coronavirus hotspots

To check community spread of COVID-19 and take remedial measures at the hotspots identified across Jammu and Kashmir, the government will conduct rapid antibody tests, using kits received from the ICMR.

The head of the microbiology department at the Government Medical College (GMC), Jammu, Dr Shashi, said this here on Monday.

"Rapid antibody-based blood tests will be conducted to detect the possible carriers of coronavirus, besides to ascertain the impact of the virus in the identified red zones," she said.

In this regard, the necessary training for health professionals will start from Monday, she added.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has advised antibody tests at the COVID-19 hotspots, which will ensure a faster detection of cases and clusters, and guide the authorities to further focus on the hotspots to contain community spread.

Shashi said they had a good experience in molecular epidemiological tracking by Real-Time PCR, which is the gold standard for frontline tests the world over.

In order to increase the testing capacity, the Cartridge-Based Nucleic Acid Amplification Test (CB-NAAT) has been started at the Intermediate Reference Laboratory at the Chest Diseases Hospital in Jammu, which gives faster results.

Shashi said the department had limited resources in the initial stage but with complete support and guidance from the Union government, they have been able to enhance the overall capacity both in terms of infrastructure and human resource.

"We have expanded our diagnostic services and are receiving well-researched guidelines from the ICMR for conducting rapid COVID-19 tests on the GeneXpert platform. We have received customised cartridges for rapid COVID-19 tests on the GeneXpert platform and have already performed 95 tests," she said, adding that the test result is available in about an hour.

Shashi said this will prove to be of great help in emergency cases and policies would be institutionalised to clear the apprehensions of doctors on this account.

GeneXpert, a doorway to wider-testing capacity, was developed to rapidly detect tuberculosis.

Shashi said the aim of introducing newer technologies is to test more people and decrease the turnaround time (TAT).

"We have started aggressive testing at our diagnostic laboratory. Currently, we carry out 200 tests per day and the Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RTPCR) technology is being used for diagnosis as a frontline test," she said.

She added that the central reference agencies are issuing guidelines from time to time and efforts are being made to implement the same.