RT-PCR tests not enough for Covid detection: experts

Doctors from Indore's Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College have clarified that RT-PCR tests, mostly used for detecting Covid-19 infections, are detecting the infection in 70 to 80 per cent cases. The RT-PCR reports in the remaining cases are incorrect.

Indore: The efficacy of RT-PCR tests have once again come under the scanner. Doctors from Indore's Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College have clarified that RT-PCR tests, mostly used for detecting Covid-19 infections, are detecting the infection in 70 to 80 per cent cases. The RT-PCR reports in the remaining cases are incorrect. Therefore, patients have to undergo a second round of testing including CT-Scans for confirmation of Covid-19. Doctors have also claimed that the new variant of Coronavirus is not being detected properly by RT-PCR tests.

Most of the critically ill patients arriving in hospitals across the country either have a negative RT-PCR test report or their treatment has been delayed due to increased infection in the body. This is the biggest reason behind the deaths of many infected patients in the country.

In addition, researchers believe that the new variant of the virus is directly entering the lungs and it is difficult to trace. Pathologists who have continuously examined RT-PCR for the last two years in the city also believe that there is a need for a chest CT scan in addition to RT-PCR to confirm the virus.

In Vadodara, Gujarat, insurance companies have been directed to treat a patient as corona-infected only on the basis of CT scan even after the rapid antigen and RT-PCR reports show negative. Apart from this, many reputed medical institutes in Delhi have also clarified that the infection in the second wave is being better detected in the bronchoalveolar levitation test than the RT-PCR and rapid antigen tests.