ICMR to expand testing pools and lab bases to tackle COVID-19

In order to widen the testing pool and highlight the actual spread of coronavirus in India, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is considering testing of people with symptoms in areas from where no SARS-Cov-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) infections have been reported.

Pooled tests involve testing in batches and if it is positive, further, individual samples are assessed.

It’s also an efficient method as it can be used to do up to three times as many tests with the same number of kits.

According to a Union Health Ministry official, people will be tested from around the 450 districts which have not reported a single case of COVID-19, the data of which was collected from integrated disease surveillance program network, and ArogyaSetu, the new mobile application. People will symptoms will be tested using both RT-PCR and rapid antibody testing.

The official also added that pool testing is a good surveillance tool and will confirm if the given area is actually COVID free.

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Since India is yet to receive its batch of rapid test kit which give result in 30 minutes, from China, the pool testing will be done using RT-PCR tests which take about five hours.

The ICMR has ordered 5,00,000 kits and raised a tender for 4.5 million more testing kits and hopes to receive the first batch by May 1 and last by May 31.

After the Chinese test kits failed the quality tests and had to returned, the Chinese government has restricted on its exports, with only fix or six companies selling them, resulting in shortage in India.

“Quality control is important as there is no point in getting a product and then realising it is of no use. The products from China have to be cleared by their local regulator and we will also conduct tests on batches to check their accuracy on a random basis,” said an ICMR to Hindustan Times.

To help in the crisis, HLL Lifecare has started producing 20,000 test kit daily in its Manesar facility.

After Chinese kits failing the quality tests, ICMR has imposed random “Lot-testing” or “Pre-shipment testing” to ensure the quality and said, “If the item is proposed to be imported from China, NMPA (National Medical Product Administration), approval for the said item/company is mandatory. On negative findings, the consignment will be rejected outright. Any supply not found acceptable shall be returned…”

Experts, however, feel ICMR is late and said, the process of procuring more tests kit should have started at least a month ago.

“Even if they didn’t have rapid test kits, they should have gone ahead with the RT-PCR tests. We had to test more to know better,” said a senior epidemiologist.

To further increase the testing abilities, besides upgrading private and government medical college laboratories, ICMR has also started recognising college laboratories that can be upgraded with the help of some mentoring by advanced labs for COVID-19 testing.

According to an ICMR document, “ICMR has taken cognizance of the need to expeditiously expand COVID-19 testing facilities in all parts of the country… efforts are being made for proactive search of potential laboratories which could be enabled for COVID-19 testing.”

All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC), Pune, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, Bengaluru, JIPMER in Puducherry, King Goerge Medical University, Lucknow, and Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences are some of the institutes identified to mentor colleges for testing.

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At least 400 college labs have been identified so far and the mentor labs have been entrusted to review them and establish what facilities they will need to function as a COVID-19 testing lab.

Advocating the idea of turning college labs to testing ones, Dr Jugal Kishore, community medicine expert, Safdarjung Hospital said, “The good thing is labs can be created or upgraded in a short span of time, so we can increase the capabilities of the testing labs.”