Union Health Ministry has urged the States and Union Territories to mandatorily retest all symptomatic negative cases of Rapid Antigen Tests through RT-PCR.<br />'' <br />''The Ministry has noted that in some large States, symptomatic negative cases tested by Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT) are not being followed up by RT-PCR testing.<br />'' <br />''The Health Ministry and Indian Council of Medical Research have jointly written to all the states in this regard.<br />'' <br />''The Ministry in a statement said, this is necessary to ensure that such symptomatic negative cases do not remain untested and do not spread the disease among their contacts.<br />'' <br />''It said, this will also ensure early detection and isolation and hospitalization of such false negatives.<br />'' <br />''In the letter, it has also been reiterated that while the RAT is being used to increase access and availability of testing in the field, RT-PCR remains the gold standard of COVID tests.<br />'' <br />''The Health Ministry  also urged the states to urgently establish a monitoring mechanism in every district by a designated officer or a team  and at the State level to follow up such cases.<br />'' <br />''These teams shall analyse details of RAT conducted on a daily basis in the Districts and State and ensure that there are no delays in retesting of all symptomatic negative cases.<br />'' <br />''The Ministry said, the aim of States and Union Territories  should be to ensure that no potentially positive case is missed out.<br />'' <br />''They have also been advised to undertake an analysis on a regular basis to monitor the incidence of positives during the RT-PCR tests conducted as a follow up.<br />