RT-PCR Test

The Delhi High Court on Monday deferred its hearing on a petition challenging an advisory issued by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), barring repetition of RT-PCR tests on individuals who tested positive for Covid-19.

The counsel for the petitioner Natasha Narwal even raised a fair doubt over the fact that how the jails been such a confined area did not sufficiently vaccinate the inmates.

Delhi is relying more on rapid antigen tests for diagnosing cases. While they have high specificity for positive cases, their sensitivity is low. So those who test negative should be re-confirmed by an RT-PCR test.

Justice Anu Sivaraman of Kerala High Court declined to entertain plea seeking directions to Centre to take effective steps to conduct mandatory RT-PCR test (Real-Time Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction test) on passengers not more than 4 days before embarkation process to India.