Nowhere in the game: Rahul Gandhi attacks Modi govt on Coronavirus testing

New Delhi, Apr 14: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday slammed Narendra Modi government saying that mass testing for coronavirus infection is key to fighting its spread but the country is currently "nowhere in the game".

Stating that the country has quite low level of testing for coronavirus infection, he said with only 149 tests per million population, India is currently in the company of countries like Laos, Niger and Honduras.

"India delayed the purchase of testing kits & is now critically short of them," he said on Twitter. "With just 149 tests per million Indians, we are now in the company of Laos (157), Niger (182) & Honduras (162). "Mass testing is the key to fighting the virus. At present we are nowhere in the game," he added in his tweet.

India has ordered 15 million personal protection gears besides a few million testing kits from China to fight the coronavirus pandemic in the country.

Medical terminologies like rapid antibodies test, RT-PCR test, hotspots and containment zones have come into focus.

Two kinds of diagnostic tests are being currently used in India -- RT-PCR test and rapid antibodies test, as per the global health norms. A reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test is a laboratory technique combining reverse transcription of RNA into DNA that detects the virus while the antibody tests, which use blood, detect the body's response to the virus, experts said.

A reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test is a laboratory technique combining reverse transcription of RNA into DNA that detects the virus while the antibody tests, which use blood, detect the body's response to the virus.