RT-PCR, RAT can detect prevailing COVID variants
The Hindu
‘Extremely rare for two false negatives to come out of RT-PCR testing’
‘Gold standard’ RT-PCR test and Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) continue to work well and there is no evidence whatsoever to show that any of the existing COVID variants could escape the diagnostics, including the currently-dominant Delta variant across the world, said scientists of Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB). “RAT is designed against the ‘N’ gene which is relatively well conserved in any of the variants and so is less likely to escape. Going by the trend, Delta variant too is unlikely to escape. RT-PCR tests are designed across the genome and have multiple targets for the virus so chances of any variant escaping is very rare,” informed scientist Divya Tej Sowpati at a webinar organised recently. While there have been instances of RT-PCR tests showing ‘false negatives’, he suggests the individual concerned stay quarantined within a week in case of any obvious symptoms like fever, cold, body pains, and redo the test.More Related News