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Total Tests In India
- As of April 13- The ICMR has so far been able to test a little more than 2 lakh samples – a minimal amount compared to country’s 1.3 billion population – due to the paucity of testing kits. (0.015%)
ICMR prepares to increase testing capacity to 100,000 a day
- The number of tests conducted has grown almost fourtimes since April 1 to an average 15,000 daily in the past five days
- However it is very low per million population
- What is Pool Testing Multiple samples of the suspected Coronavirus patients are examined in a Reverse transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT PCR) test.
Andaman and Nicobar became the first to conduct pool test in the country
- In a tweet Friday, Chetan Sanghi, Chief Secretary of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands said that one-fourth of test kits are being used by pooling samples leading to more tests on an average in the union territory.
Preferable number of samples to be pooled
- Preferable number of samples to be pooled is five,
- Although more than two samples can be pooled, but considering higher possibility of missing positive samples with low viral load
- ICMR strongly discouraged to pool more than 5 samples, except in research mode.
ICMR is proposing Pool test because
- No of Corona virus case is increasing exponentially
- It is the need of the hour to increase the number of test conducted by laboratories with limited testing kits
“When the disease progresses and probability of positives goes up, the usefulness of the pool test comes down” “जब रोग की प्रगति और सकारात्मक की संभावना ऊपर चली जािा है, पूल परीक्षण की उपयोतगिा नीचेआिी है”