Coronavirus Update: India-Made RT-PCR Testing Kits To Come By The End Of May

While in some countries, the coronavirus pandemic seems to be on a downfall, India and several nations are still witnessing an ongoing outbreak. Due to it, the demand for testing kits also increases to check whether a person is infected with the virus or not.

In the last 24 hours, there have been 1,594 fresh cases and 51 dead people of coronavirus reported in India. The recovery rate of the country reaches 23.3%, according to the Health Ministry.

During a video conferencing with Bio-Technology Department's directors, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan announced:

"For the last 14 days, our doubling rate is 8.7, while for the last 7 days, it is 10.2 days. In the last three days, it is 10.9 days roughly."

Besides, he added that 80 districts had no new cases in the last 7 days and within 28 continuous days, there were no fresh cases in 17 districts. Harsh continued:

"In 47 districts, no case has been reported in the last 14 days, while 39 districts have not reported a case since the last 21 days."

As per the data of the State Health Departments, there are 31,377 cases across India with a death toll of 1,010 and a recovered toll of 7,696. Maharashtra state continues to lead the list of the most affected areas with more than 9,300 positive cases and 400 people were found dead of coronavirus.

As the reported new cases keep rising a lot, India needs a supply of testing kits and other medical facilities to get through the pandemic. The Health Minister confirmed that by the end of May, the Indian-made RT-PCR testing kits will be produced to meet the demand of the country.

Mr. Harsh Vardhan stated:

"All processes are in an advanced stage and production will start after getting approval from ICMR. It will help us in meeting our target of 1 lakh tests per day by May 31. We have issued directions to expedite the development of anti-body detection kits, real-time PCR-based detection kits, and vaccines for COVID-19 under ‘Make in India'."

Saying that the country is facing coronavirus with a pro-active response strategy, he shared that patients who are in very mild or pre-symptomatic cases were guided to isolate at home by the Ministry. He stated:

"Patients who have a requisite facility at their residence for self-isolation will have the option of home isolation. These guidelines are in addition to guidelines on appropriate management of suspect/confirmed case of COVID-19 issued by the Ministry earlier."

Regular patients who need blood transfusion, dialysis, institutional deliveries, and chemotherapy aren't really provided critical care from private hospitals. They are afraid of contracting COVID-19 and keep the ground nearby.

The Health Ministry opened up:

"It is also noticed that in many places they are insisting on COVID-19 tests before providing services. The Ministry wants to insist that all health centres should remain open and cater to patients."

Over the country, some healthcare and medical staff tested positive for coronavirus, leading to the closing of some hospitals, according to the Health Ministry. It shared:

"Also some non-COVID health facilities have reported confirmation of COVID-19, in patients admitted for unrelated/non-respiratory illness, causing undue apprehension among healthcare workers, sometimes leading to impaired functionality of such hospitals."

Meanwhile, it also said that the Ministry has issued some guidelines about a staffing plan for all healthcare facilities (HCF). Since then, they should prepare a plan of contingency for staff infection to remain operating during the pandemic spread.

The Ministry suggested:

"Staff HCF can be divided into groups to work on rotation basis every 14 days and a group of back up staff which is pooled in case some high risk exposure with suspected COVID-19 infection is detected."

If the situation continues to happen on the medical staff, the non-COVID facility will need to transform into a COVID facility with the direction of the local health department.