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COVID 19 Rapid Tests FACTS:

1. First consignment of COVID 19 rapid test kits have arrived in India.
2. These rapid tests require blood samples and NOT the swabs.
3. These are NOT for diagnosis but for surveillance, especially in hotspots.
4. Rapid tests require a minimum of 7 days to come positive after a person gets an infection with nCoV-2.
5. Using them before 7 days may lead to a false negative result.
6. These have a sensitivity of over 80% and take around half an hour to perform.
7. Rapid tests are NOT a replacement for gold standard RT-PCR which will continue to be used for confirmed COVID 19 diagnosis.
8. Considering their ease of use and rapidness, these kits will be used ONLY for sero-surveillance in the hotspots zones to ascertain if the virus has reached at the community transmission level in that area. In addition the results will also tell