Category: Testing

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Coronavirus: India’s ambitious ‘test on demand’ approach is fraught with problems

By stating that “all individuals who wish to get themselves tested” are eligible for tests on demand, the ICMR is theoretically making all of India’s 1.3 billion people eligible for a test and also demand a test repeatedly without an upper limit, even when the country does not have the capacity to undertake such a massive exercise. Clearly, the latest advisory is over ambitious and has been framed without much application of mind.

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No correlation between Ct values of PCR test and COVID-19 severity

Using the cycle threshold (Ct) values to infer COVID-19 disease severity or infectiousness may be problematic. Cycle threshold values can be suggestive of the amount of virus in an infected person but there is no reliable way of correlating the Ct value with COVID-19 disease severity or infectiousness. But largely, when the Ct value is over 35, a person is unlikely to be infectious. There are many variables that can alter the Ct value of a sample.

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