Covid-19 rapid diagnostic test kit reaches Nagaland

Dimapur, April 19 (EMN): Another special Indian Air Force (AIF) flight on Sunday arrived in Nagaland with what was described by Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio as “much-awaited critical consignment” of rapid diagnostic test kit for Covid-19.

According to a DIPR report, the consignment was delivered by a special Dornier-228, light utility multipurpose aircraft of the IAF, through the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

Deputy Director of Heath and Family Welfare Dr. Tiasunup Pongener, who is also the Covid-19 nodal officer for Dimapur, received the consignment at Dimapur Airport.

According to the doctor, with the availability of rapid testing kit, the department will now start screening of suspects in the hotspots, “which would be a tremendous boost to enhance the capabilities to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, especially for the frontline workers”.

He assured that improvement of Covid-19 facility will be a continuous process and all dedicated efforts are being made in this regard.

On his Twitter account, Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio wrote: ‘The much-awaited critical consignment of rapid diagnostic test kit for Covid-19 issued by the government of India, for Nagaland, through ICMR Delhi has arrived by special Dornier flight of the IAF. The kits will be used in hotspots identified in the state.’

Also, in his daily update, Home Commissioner Abhijit Sinha cited the ICMR as having said that the gold standard of Covid-19 test is RT-PCR, and rapid test is only a supplementary test for assessing prevalence of the disease within a specific parameter.

“The ICMR advisory on use of the rapid test is for hotspot areas and surveillance tool for epidemiological purposes,” he said.