Indore: As the state government has given approval for ‘Rapid Antibody Test’ to private laboratories aiming increase in testing and early detection of patients, city experts believe that guidelines about whom and how to be tested are yet to come.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had discussed the same with the delegation of Indian Medical Association and Nursing Home Association on Saturday morning through video-conferencing and learnt about the feasibility of test and its advantages.
Vice-president of IMA-Madhya Pradesh Dr Sanjay Londhe said, “The government approved rapid antibody test and it will help more people to get tested on to get the results at the earliest.”
Dr Londhe added that the test would not be performed by all the private laboratories as Indian Council of Medical Research has set certain guidelines for the same. It will be initially done by Shri Aurobindo Institute of Medical Sciences and Central Lab.
“Even after approval, it will take a couple of days' time to start as government is yet to issue guidelines for who will prescribe, who will be tested and how much cost will be taken for the test,” he added.
Meanwhile, Central Lab’s Dr Vinita Kothari said they are ready for the test in terms of kits as well as in terms of necessary requirements.
“We have the NABL permission which is the basic requirement for getting approval from ICMR for doing Rapid Antibody Test. We can perform as many as 4000-5000 tests in a day if we work for 20 hours,” she said.
Dr Kothari added that price for the kits is yet to decided and so that the cost of test with other guidelines. “If will start immediately after getting clearance of this aspects. The test will help in increasing number of testing in city as those found positive in it will go for PCR test. It will also help in finding the carriers of virus who don’t have any symptoms as they can be treated in dedicated COVID care centers.”
11 companies quoted price for kits
With approval for Rapid Antibody Test, as many as 11 companies have quoted prices for the kits which range from Rs 100 to Rs 1000. Government is working on the quality of kits and will take final decision soon.
