Due to the recent spurt in the number of Covid-19 cases in the country, especially the national capital, the testing capacity has been further increased. RT-PCR diagnostic tests along with others are being utilised for the same. The growing number of cases has increased the Central and state governments’ concern. Besides aggressive RT-PCR testing, house-to-house surveys are going on in Mumbai and Delhi to somehow curb the spread. Contact-tracing is underway on a large scale. The Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) testing mobile laboratory, a joint initiative of SpiceHealth and the government, was recently launched in Delhi. It will conduct free RT-PCR tests and the results will be available in six to eight hours.
The outbreak of Covid-19 is not likely to subside anytime soon and gauging the situation, a huge number of kits would be needed in the near future that means manufacturing indigenous testing kits on a larger scale. As a country, are we equipped to meet this demand and tackle the overwhelming burden caused by the pandemic? Test kit manufacturers and vendors are affirmative.
“Until we get access to the vaccine, we have to internalise that we have to live with the pandemic. The central and state governments have been vigilant and responding to the evolving situation effectively. They have stayed on the course of expansive testing, and are continuing to do their best, opines Aishwarya Vasudevan, Group Chief Operating Officer, Neuberg Diagnostics.
With the onset of winter, we are still trying to get a grip on how pandemic will fare. The possibility of the second Covid-19 wave cannot be ruled out. Vasudevan adds, “As we move ahead, the government will have to consider multiple factors including availability of indigenous RTPCR test kits. Since the outbreak, by encouraging domestic manufacturers to develop indigenous testing kits, the government has given a thrust to Make in India initiative. When it comes to complete self-reliance, we still have some distance to cover. This can very well be overcome by incentivising the indigenous manufacturers.”
Talking about the soaring demand of RT-PCR tests, Jatin Goyal, MD, Corosure says, “There has been a certain increase in the demand for RT-PCR tests in the country in recent times owing to the rapid scale at which coronavirus is spreading. In the last week, we have seen that people with little symptoms are getting themselves tested. Surprisingly, even low symptomatic patients are getting positive results as the virus is behaving little differently.”
He adds that there is an immediate demand for tests as a large number of people are not taking necessary precautions and coronavirus is spreading severely, especially in Delhi and many people are ignoring the symptoms and not getting tested. Due to media reports, there is fear amongst masses so noticing symptoms some of them are getting their Covid-19 tests done. “Also, in recent times people have started travelling to other states, supposedly fear of Covid-19 has gone away from their minds, due to which the demand for RT-PCR tests has gone up,” Goyal points out.
Covid-19 cases are increasing at a fast pace but there are enough RT-PCR test kit manufacturers and vendors to meet the present need. “We wish to find the active cases more diligently and effectively and thus will need more RT-PCR testing kits. RT-PCR is the gold standard of Covid testing globally and is the most effective way to detect active infection. Therefore, we have to follow the test, isolate, track and treat regime as there is no other substitute. We have not faced any issue with the supply of RT-PCR test kits yet as there are around 142 ICMR-approved kit manufacturers and vendors in India. They will be able to address the current need,” believes Chetan Kohli, COO, Genestrings labs.
Till a vaccine is launched, the country needs to aggressively step up testing. For the same, one of the most widely used Covid-19 tests includes molecular assays to detect SARS-CoV-2 viral using PCR based techniques. The RT-PCR depends on its ability to amplify the minute quantity of viral genetic material in a sample, underlines Rajesh Patel, CEO, IVD India, Trivitron Healthcare.
Patel continues, “RT-PCR tests are constantly evolving with improved diagnostic methods and with the integration of more automated procedures. As cases rise rapidly, to encounter the Covid-19, RT-PCR testing is the best available option. We are on the front foot of large-scale manufacturing and supplying high-quality RT-PCR tests to various state governments, central testing agencies and private labs.”
“India is witnessing a significant rise in Covid-19 cases with the number of infected patients continuously increasing. Over the past few months, companies like ours have been focused on scaling and upgrading the testing infrastructure to ensure availability of testing kits in the country. With several test kits available, testing platforms that can consistently deliver superior sensitivity and specificity would be essential in enabling our response to the pandemic,” asserts Amit Chopra, Managing Director, India and Middle East, Thermo Fisher Scientific.
Globally, the company has scaled up production of their RT-PCR assay kits to 10 million tests a week, and have a capacity of supplying at least 3,00,000 Covid-19 RT-PCR test kits per day in India. Chopra adds, “, we are working with several pharma and biotech customers to extend our end-to-end Covid-19 workflow solutions to quickly ramp up testing infrastructure and vaccine research and manufacturing.”
Most regions across India, specifically key centres like Delhi, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu are going through the second wave of Covid-19. There is an urgent need for enhanced awareness about the coronavirus symptoms and increased RT-PCR testing. More importantly, as India has a very high rate of asymptomatic cases, there is a need to cover as much ground as possible with RT-PCR testing, opines Dr Vikram Sanghi, CEO, Sanghi Medical Centre.
“Government and private labs need to scale up capacity to conduct tests. In the last 15 days, we have almost doubled our capacity to cater to the needs of patients in Delhi. The government has tied up with premium private labs like ours to ramp up testing,” informs Dr Sanghi. “Collaboration between people, government authorities and labs will help India to possibly flatten the curve and eventually drop the curve. Next four weeks are key to this journey of keeping India safe,” he concludes.
