As COVID cases plummet, Delhi is witnessing a decline in RTPCR tests this week compared to the past three weeks. The labs in the national capital are getting fewer than 3,000 RTPCR tests per day this week compared to approximately 4,000 a day in the last few weeks. Laboratory owners say that more people are now opting for home self-testing kits. In the last few weeks when COVID cases were high, more than 4,000 RTPCR samples were collected per day at the lab. However, the tests reduced to around 2,800 per day this week, said a lab owner.
Dr Arvind Lal, executive chairman, Dr Lal PathLabs Ltd said, “RTPCR testing has come down, which is definitely a good sign. A week back, our all India per day collections were around 12,000, which has now come down to 9,000, which is approximately 25% less. In Delhi where we were testing 3,600 samples every day earlier, now the testing decreased to approximately 2,800 each day.”
The public relations officer of another leading lab said, “Initially the situation was completely unknown and people started panicking. This led to an increase in testing. Even people who were having viral fevers wanted to get tested. Now the situation has got better and the testing has reduced at least by 25-30% in Delhi as compared to the last few weeks. Moreover, many are
opting for home self-testing kits.”
Dr D.S. Rana, chairman, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Delhi, said that RTPCR testing has reduced as the panic phase has gone and because of the relatively low severity of the present variant of coronavirus.
“The number of COVID cases are coming down altogether but we must also not overlook the home testing kits which people are opting more now after the panic phase has slid off. Also, due to the less severity of the disease, people are not opting for such tests. They are isolating themselves and taking precautions,” Dr Rana said.
Delhi registered a decline in its daily COVID caseload as it reported 4,044 new infections in the last 24 hours with a positivity rate of 8.60%.
INTRANASAL BOOSTER DOSE TRIALS
The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) on Friday granted permission to Bharat Biotech to conduct clinical trials of intranasal vaccine BBV154.
The Subject Expert Committee (SEC) of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) had also recommended the internasal vaccine clinical trials during the last meeting. The NOC letter issued by the DCGI read, “Central Licensing Authority hereby permits Bharat Biotech International limited to conduct clinical trials of the new drug or investigational new drug.”
The dosage form of the vaccine is liquid for the intranasal route of administration and every single dose contains 0.5ml.
The trials of the intranasal vaccine will take place at nine different sites of the country.
The trials will be conducted at Atman Hospital, Ahmedabad, Gujarat; AIIMS, Delhi and Patna; Oyster and Pearls Hospitals, Pune; Pt.BD Sharma Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences at Rohtak, Haryana; Acharya Vinobha Bhave Rural Hospital, Wardha; Jeevan Rekha Hospital, Belagavi; Rana hospital, Gorakhpur; and Prakhar Hospital, Uttar Pradesh.
“The Phase-3 clinical trial should be conducted as per protocol multi-center study to compare immunogenicity and safety of BBV154 with COVAXIN.” read the letter.