Jain: Looking to speak to Centre & ICMR about reducing testing by 10%

New Delhi: As the number of daily RT-PCR tests surpassed that of daily rapid antigen tests, Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Tuesday said that the Delhi government is taking up a proposal to reduce testing by 10 per cent of the total capacity in the Capital so that results can be tabulated the same day with the Indian Council for Medical Research and the Centre for approval.

Jain explained that laboratories in the city are already running at full capacity and that his government had already issued directions to ensure a turnaround period of 24 hours for the results. But because the labs are at full capacity, they are physically unable to deliver all the results on the same day, resulting in latency.

"We will be taking up this issue with the ICMR and the Central government to suggest that if labs conduct 10 per cent less [sic] tests than their total capacity, it will result in a higher turnaround rate," he added.

Jain said that the city is optimally utilising both private and government labs, but there is a need for additional support as promised by the Central government when it stepped in to help with the third wave.

"The Centre had said some special labs will be allotted. ICMR controls all such labs. So the issue of delay is being taken up so that delays do not happen," he further said.

He also said that Delhi's positivity rate was down by 55 per cent since November 7. Recently, the state government through an order reduced the price of private RT-PCR tests from Rs 2,400 to Rs 800 along with reducing the cost of collecting samples from home to Rs 1,200.

The Minister said that the death rate was at 1.61 percent owing to pollution levels - stubble burning being a major contributor to which, leading to the declining health of citizens along with widespread coronavirus.

He said, "We have to see the moving average and not take into consideration the daily statistics. At present, 1.61 per cent is the death ratio. During winters, pollution levels

in Delhi due to the stubble burning in neighbouring states was the reason behind the declining health of citizens. Due to that very reason, we saw an increase in hospital admissions. However, we anticipate that in two-three weeks, it will get better."