Nearly 1.5 lakh people tested positive for COVID-19 through rapid-antigen method

New Delhi, July 04: More than 45 per cent of the over 5.96 lakh COVID-19 tests in Delhi were conducted in the last 16 days, after the government started testing through the rapid-antigen methodology in and around containment zones of the national capital.

Rapid-antigen tests started in the city on June 18. Since then, a total of 2,75,396 tests through the RT-PCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) and rapid-antigen methods have been conducted in Delhi with around 17,000 tests per day.

Of this, around 1.5 lakh people have been tested through rapid-antigen kits, according to the Delhi government's health bulletins. Till June 18, health authorities conducted 3,21,302 tests for the disease using the "expensive but gold standard" RT-PCR method.

The number of tests per day has also seen an around four-fold increase from 4,190 tests per day in the first week of June to 15,863 tests per day in the last week of the month.

On Friday, more than 24,000 tests, 10,577 RT-PCR tests and 13,588 rapid antigen tests, were conducted in the city, a massive jump from 6,538 tests conducted a month ago on June 3.

In the last one month, from June 3 to July 3, as many as 3.66 lakh people have been tested for COVID-19, which is 12,218 tests daily. So far, 5,96,698 tests have been conducted through RT-PCR and the rapid-antigen methods.

The government, on Friday, expanded rapid-antigen testing, earlier limited to containment zones, to other areas in all 11 districts of the national capital.

State-run and private hospitals in the capital have also begun testing for COVID-19 using this method following the nod of the government.