Testing needs to be an essential part of the state governments Covid-19 control strategy. Without enough test kits, the efforts of the government to contain the spread of the virus will remain futile, TDP president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu stated on Friday while urging the government to scale up testing.

In a letter to Chief Secretary Nilam Sawhney, Naidu said the government should explore the possibility of using TrueNat testing kits as they help in detecting 100 per cent corona virus negative and, in case of positive results, they may be sent for RT-PCR confirmatory tests. “ICMR has approved TrueNAT for the screening stage and referred to RT-PCR test as the only confirmation test,” Naidu wrote.

Without enough test kits, the efforts of the government to contain the spread of the virus will remain futile, he wrote. “We cannot establish a truer picture of positive cases if we don’t test extensively,” Naidu stated in the letter.

Expressing concern over the alarming surge in the positive cases of Covid-19, he said the results of at least 16,000 samples are pending. “Delay of results can pose a potential threat to public health. Such delays can lead to further spread of virus,” Naidu wrote attributing the delay of results to lack of adequate number of Covid confirmation testing labs. “There are only eight confirmation testing labs which is the major cause for delay in test results. The government should use private testing labs to determine corona virus presence.” Naidu’s letter to the Chief Secretary comes in the wake of Andhra Pradesh reporting the biggest single-day spike in new corona virus cases on Thursday. The state recorded the most coronavirus cases in a single day with 80 reported on Thursday. It brings the total number of cases in the state to 893, according to the government heath bulletin. The virus has so far claimed 27 lives in the state.