Test kits for Covid-19: India risks chaos with ICMR's strategy

More testing labs are added to the list, more kits enter the market but apex biomedical body ICMR’s mythical 100% concordance is creating confusion, roadblock and delay. It's time ICMR changed its kit approval as well as testing strategy. Oh, and also became more transparent

As India moves to confront community transmission of Covid-19, it will need syndromic, wider testing

Even global textbook definitions for tests expect 96-98% sensitivity or specificity. ICMR wants 100%

Equally baffling is ICMR’s disregard for the southern biotech hubs of Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai while testing kits

As more rapid blood test kits enter the market, the present strategy won’t suffice; India will need to test many batches from many suppliers. Can it?

Like books and minds, a public health response in the midst of the steadily worsening novel coronavirus pandemic works best when it is open.

It’s been almost a week since the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the apex biomedical body on Covid-19 management, approved test kits from private manufacturers to supply real-time . Meaningful testing, though, has still not happened. Many of the private labs that were approved subsequently didn’t begin testing until Saturday, 28 March.

AUTHOR

Seema Singh

Seema has over two decades of experience in journalism. Before starting The Ken, Seema wrote “Myth Breaker: Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and the Story of Indian Biotech”, published by HarperCollins in May 2016. Prior to that, she was a senior editor and bureau chief for Bangalore with Forbes India, and before that she wrote for Mint. Seema has written for numerous international publications like IEEE-Spectrum, New Scientist, Cell and Newsweek. Seema is a Knight Science Journalism Fellow from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a MacArthur Foundation Research Grantee.

View Full Profile