New Delhi:The government has decided to use one time RT-PCR based pooled sampling for COVID-19 screening among migrant workers and returnees from abroad kept in quarantine facilities.
The same testing technique would also be used for monitoring in green zones districts which have reported no cases till now during the last 21 days, the Union Health Ministry said while issuing guidelines for RT-PCR based pooled sampling for migrants/returnees from abroad/green zones' on Thursday.
"A decision has been taken to use one time RT-PCR based pooled sampling for surveillance purposes for migrant workers in institutional quarantine facilities, international passengers in institutional quarantine facilities/hotels earmarked for quarantine and for surveillance purposes in green zones (districts with no case/no case reported in last 21 days)," the guidelines stated.
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According to the guidelines to be followed for pooling of samples, a cohort of 25 people will be identified, and throat/nasal swab will be collected as per the laid down protocol by trained laboratory personnel wearing appropriate protective gear such as apron, hand glove, face-shield/goggles and N-95 mask.
Proper labelling (name/age/gender/specimen ID) needs to be done on specimen container, it said.
The guidelines stated that 25 such samples of such cohort would be packed in triple layer packaging and will be transported to the identified laboratory under cold-chain as per ICMR guidelines.
The outer container mentioning be tested for SARS-CoV-2 will also bear the details of the sender (name/address/phone number). The samples will be aliquoted and thereafter pooled samples from 25 specimens shall be tested in the laboratory by RT-PCR method.