The Meghalaya health department on Thursday said that all ‘symptomatic COVID-19 negative cases’ in the state tested through the rapid antigen test, have been all re-tested using the RT-PCR.
All states and Union Territories have been asked to mandatorily re-test all symptomatic Coronavirus cases that have been tested negative through rapid antigen test, by using the RT-PCR.
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The Union Health Ministry and ICMR have jointly written to all the States and Union Territories and asked them to ensure that all symptomatic negative cases of rapid antigen test are mandatorily retested using the RT-PCR.
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“This is necessary to ensure that such symptomatic negative cases do not remain untested and do not spread the disease among their contacts. This will also ensure early detection and isolation/hospitalization of such false negatives,” the Union health ministry said in the statement.
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However, Director of Health Services (MI) Dr Aman War said that all symptomatic COVID-19 negative cases of rapid antigen test have been re-tested by using RT-PCR for confirmation.
“Even the high-risk contacts of those symptomatic COVID-19 positive cases were tested by using the RT-PCR. Therefore, there are no pending symptomatic negative cases of antigen rapid test that should be re-tested by using the RT-PCR,” Dr War stated.
Dr War also said that all COVID-19 positive cases especially those admitted in hospitals were mostly symptomatic.
At present, Meghalaya has a total of 1,434 COVID-19 active cases, and most of the cases are asymptomatic.
While as many as 1,842 persons infected with the virus have recovered, 20 persons mostly patients with comorbidities have died due to COVID-19.
Patients with a history of hypertension, obesity, chronic lung disease, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease are advised to take precautions as they face a higher risk of becoming severely ill from COVID-19.