J&K introduces rapid antigen COVID-19 tests for screening of travellers

Jammu and Kashmir administration has introduced rapid antigen tests to pick out COVID-19 infections among people entering the union Territory at Lakhanpur in Kathua.

These tests are useful as results come out within half an hour using this method.

"We were using RT-PCR method earlier but recently the administration introduced rapid antigen test. We get the results in about half an hour using this method," Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Ashok Choudhary told ANI on Saturday.

"We have conducted 1,230 tests so far, of which 10 were positive. Using the rapid antigen test, we can test 700 samples daily. This method has also reduced the load on quarantine centres," Chief Minister's office said.

The total number of cases in the Union Territory (UT) now stands at 24,390 including 7,264 active cases and 459 deaths, as per the administration of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Saturday stated that India's COVID-19 recovery rate stands at 68.32%.

India`s patients recovering from COVID-19 crossed the 14.2 lakh mark.

The Ministry further stated that the case fatality rate (CFR) in the country stands at 2.04 percent.