New strategies to expand Covid-19 testing at affordable costs as cases rise

Pvt labs seek approval for protocol on patient sample pooling; faecal testing also considered

As cases continue to surge in India even during the nationwide lockdown, plans are afoot to expand the scope of screening potential Covid-19 patients by reducing expenditure on reagents required to do the tests. An option to do screening using faecal samples is also being considered. 

The idea is to reduce the wastage of reagents by testing Covid-19 negative patients. 

The country's apex health research body the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has already advised that a new testing strategy be adopted in specific clusters where the positivity rate (percentage of cases turning out to be positive upon testing)