An expert from the ICMR's National Institute of Virology addresses concerns about hantavirus cases detected on a cruise ship, stating there is no immediate public health threat to India and that the cases appear isolated.
While there is a shortage of testing kits, manpower and capacities, India does not have other scalable testing options.
These seven countries are South Africa, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand and Zimbabwe.
'We urge the government to have discussions with private labs on the actual cost of running a test.'
Named after Satyajit Ray's famed detective, the Feluda test, which is priced at Rs 500 and can deliver a result in 45 minutes, is able to differentiate SARS-CoV-2 from other coronaviruses even if genetic variations between them are minute.
The BCCI, along with its medical service provider VPS Healthcare, will facilitate the conduct of over 30,000 RT-PCR tests on all IPL players, support staff and other stakeholders during the remaining 31 games of the cash-rich league in the UAE.
At present, no Omicron variant has been reported in India, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said.
A case of COVID-19 sub-variant JN. 1 has been detected in Kerala as part of an ongoing routine surveillance activity of the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG), a senior official from the Indian Council of Medical research (ICMR) said on Saturday.
Amid growing concerns over the detection of human metapneumovirus cases in India, health experts have emphasised the virus is not new, and advised people to stay calm and take basic precautions.
One challenge for many laboratories in ramping up is the shortage of trained manpower for collecting samples, report Sohini Das, Vinay Umarji and Virendra Singh Rawat.
Pune's Mylab Discovery Solutions' CoviSelf, which gives results in 15 minutes, gets ICMR nod
The city's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) has put in place all necessary measures to implement the health ministry's latest COVID-19 guidelines on international passengers arriving in India, the private airport operator said on Wednesday.
The same testing technique would also be used for monitoring in green zones districts which have reported no cases till now or in the last 21 days, the Union health ministry said while issuing 'Guidelines for RT-PCR based pooled sampling for migrants/returnees from abroad/green zones'.
In a letter to states and Union Territories, Union health secretary Sudhansh Pant underlined that "due to consistent and collaborative actions between the Centre and state governments, we have been able to sustain the (COVID-19) trajectory at sustainable low rates".
The guidelines released on Friday come into force from January 11 and will remain effective till further government orders.
'There are not enough RT-PCR tests and they take a long time to do in specialised centres. So the world is using RA tests for the same reason that India is using them, and with similar somewhat spuriously comforting rationale'
Instead of seven-day home quarantine as mandated earlier, all travellers will self-monitor their health for 14 days after their arrival.
Two kinds of diagnostic tests are being currently used in India -- RT-PCR test and rapid antibodies test -- as per the global health norms.
'This means that there is a higher likelihood of individuals who have recovered from COVID-19 to be reinfected with the Omicron variant'
It also advised testing on demand for 'all individuals undertaking travel to countries or Indian states mandating a negative COVID-19 test at the point of entry'.
Passengers should undergo RT-PCR test and be isolated in a separate unit of an institutional facility if found positive
The ICMR-National Institute of Virology has been regularly undertaking studies to understand the protective efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines against emerging variants.
The ICMR Advisory on Purposive Testing Strategy for COVID-19 also said individuals undertaking inter-state domestic travels do not need to get tested either.
'Serial testing is much more valuable than a single test which reflects just a point in time.'
The bouquet of Covid-19 tests that most diagnostic labs are offering include antibody tests (blood tests), rapid antigen tests (point of care tests that detect the presence of an antigen from a nasal or throat swab in case of SARS-CoV-2), and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests.
The apex health research body on Tuesday validated the 1,000th testing laboratory, ramping up the capacity for detection of COVID-19 in the country. Currently, three lakh samples can be tested per day, an official said.
Six Covid-19 cases were reported on Wednesday after screening 3,476 passengers of 11 flights that arrived in India from "at-risk" countries and the samples have been sent for genomic sequencing, the Health Ministry said amid concerns over the 'Omicron' variant of coronavirus.
In the past 24 hours, about 1,80,596 samples were tested on July 5 in the country with a total of 1,00,04,101 samples have been tested till date, said an official.
Tope's comments came a day after the Centre asked the state to align its order with the SOPs issued by the Union health ministry.
NITI Aayog member (Health) V K Paul said, "COVID-19 situation is turning from bad to worse. In last few weeks, especially in some states, it is a huge cause for worry. No state, no part of the country or district should be complacent."
The civic body also informed that those kept in institutional quarantine will be discharged only when they test negative for the virus. Municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal took the decision to allow testing without medical prescription in view of increase in the number of private laboratories and their capacity, it said in a release.
The Omicron variant carries 'concerning' mutations that may make it more transmissible and allow it to evade immunity, scientists said on Monday, stressing that the one certainty in the uncertainty of the many things unknown is this -- COVID is not a short-term crisis and vaccines are still a critical tool.
India is the fourth worst-hit nation by the pandemic after the United States, Brazil and Russia.
The court noted that the daily number of new COVID-19 cases received for November 10 was at 8,593 and "still counting" and the number of containment zones in the city were 4,016.
Amid the growing queues of ambulances waiting for patients to be admitted with ventilators and oxygen, only time will tell if the state government has lost the plot or not.
The Centre had on Thursday asked all states and union territories to conduct rigorous screening and testing of all international travellers coming from or transiting through South Africa, Hong Kong and Botswana, where the B.1.1.529 variant has been detected.
Private diagnostic laboratories have already approached the respective state governments and the municipalities where they are operating to approve protocols for such testing in clusters, reports Sohini Das.
Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan held a review meeting with states and Union Territories on Tuesday and advised them to ramp up testing for early identification and management of cases.
A group of public health experts, including doctors from All India Institute of Medical Sciences and members from the national taskforce on COVID-19, have said that mass, indiscriminate and incomplete vaccination can trigger emergence of mutant strains and recommended that there is no need to inoculate those who had documented coronavirus infection.
The ICMR has approved over 200 labs (both public and private) for COVID-19 testing through-PCR machines.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances