India to ramp up Covid testing, but scale down ‘gold standard’ RT-PCR tests

ICMR has said India will soon do 45 lakh daily Covid-19 tests. However, a majority of these will be rapid antigen tests and the 'gold standard' RT-PCR test numbers are being scaled down.

The government, while ramping up Covid testing, is moving away from the ‘gold standard’ RT-PCR tests and is about to increase the number of antigen tests in the country. ICMR Director General Balram Bhargava on Thursday said by the end of June, India’s daily Covid testing capacity will be upped to 45 lakh and of these, 18 lakh will be RT-PCR tests while 27 lakh will be Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT). In March, PM Narendra Modi had said of the total number of Covid tests in India, 70% should be the ‘gold standard’ RT-PCR tests. However, according to an NDTV report, the RT-PCR tests are being brought down to 40% from PM Modi’s target of 70%.