Health advisory allows ‘on demand’ testing for first time

New Delhi, Sep 5 (UNI) The Health Ministry on Saturday issued an updated advisory on Covid-19 testing by simplifying testing procedure and introducing ‘on-demand’ testing without a prescription for the first time.

The Health and Family Welfare ministry, in a release, said a “totally new section has been added in the Advisory onto “Testing on Demand” which for all practical purposes does away with prescription by a registered medical practitioner although state governments have the freedom to decide on simplified modalities.”

On recommendations of the National Task Force on Covid-19, the new advisory has further simplified the testing process and given more freedom and flexibilities to the state authorities to facilitate enhanced ease of testing for the people.

For this, state governments were to decide simplified modalities: All individuals undertaking travel to countries/Indian states mandating a negative Covid-19 test at point of entry and all individuals who wish to get themselves tested. It recommended tracking and contact tracing mechanisms should be ensured by the testing laboratories by notifying the public health authorities.

The advisory elaborates on the choice of tests (in order of priority) in various given settings.

The advisory comes amid an unprecedented upsurge in India’s daily testing capacities, when more than 11.70 lakh tests have been conducted per day for two successive days taking the total to 4 crore and 77 lakh tests done so far across the country.

There are now 1,647 testing laboratories operational which cover all states/UTs.

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