The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Tuesday issued a fresh advisory regarding RT-PCR test during inter-state travel. At a press briefing, Balram Bhargava, director-general of ICMR, said, "There is no need for reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests for covid-19 for healthy individuals undertaking inter-state domestic travel."
The advisory has been issued in order to reduce the load on COVID-19 testing laboratories in the wake of the second wave of the pandemic. The advisory stated further that the RT-PCR test should not be repeated on an individual who has tested positive once and completed a home isolation period of 14 days.
Bhargava further said, "Non-essential travel and interstate travel of symptomatic individuals should be essentially avoided. All asymptomatic individuals undertaking essential travel must follow covid appropriate behavior."
"With the second wave of coronavirus raging, there is a need to aggressively increase the use of RAT in rural and hard to reach areas to ensure faster isolation," he added.
India reported 3,48,421 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours taking the cumulative count of the cases to 2,33,40,938, the Union Health Ministry reported on Wednesday. With 4205 people succumbing to the infection in the last 24 hours, the death toll has mounted to 2,54,197. Currently, there are 37,04,099 active cases of COVID-19 in the country.
The country also witnessed as many as 3,55,338 recoveries in the last 24 hours taking the cumulative recoveries to 1,93,82,642. According to the ICMR, as many as 30,75,83,991 samples tested for COVID-19 up to May 11. Of these 19,83,804 samples tested on Tuesday. The total doses of the COVID-19 vaccine administered stand at over 17,52,35,991 crore, informed the health ministry.
