New Delhi: The National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune has developed an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test to detect antibodies generated in blood in response to COVID-19.

At the daily press briefing at New Delhi, Lav Agarwal, joint secretary at the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) announced that the specificity or true negative rate identification of the ELISA test is 97% and its sensitivity is 92%. He said that this kit would be used for epidemiological investigation and surveillance.

Giving out COVID-19 data, he said, 20,917 people have been cured nationwide till now and 44,029 people are under active supervision.

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In the last 24 hours, 4,213 confirmed cases have been reported and 1,559 people have been cured. The total confirmed cases is 67,152 and the recovery rate is 31.15%.

He also added that the health ministry has revised the discharge policy for confirmed cases. He said the new guidelines are aligned with the guidelines on the three-tier COVID facility and categorisation of patients based on clinical severity.

"According to the revised guidelines, if a mild, very mild and pre-symptomatic patient admitted in a COVID-19 care facility has no fever for three days, he or she can be discharged after 10 days of onset of symptoms and there will be no need for testing prior to discharge.

"For moderate patients, if fever resolves within three days and they maintain saturation above 95% for the next four days (without oxygen support), then he/she can be discharged after 10 days of symptom onset provided there is no breathlessness and requirement of oxygen.

"For severe cases which include immunocompromised HIV patients, transplant recipients, and those with malignancy, the discharge criteria is clinical recovery and negative test by RT-PCR.

"The patients are advised to follow home isolation for seven days after discharge."

The Ministry of Home Affairs joint secretary Punya Salila Shrivastava said that under the Samundra Setu Mission, INS Jalashwa has brought back 698 stranded persons from Maldives including 105 women and four kids. INS Magar has also departed yesterday with about 200 passengers.

Under the Vande Bharat Mission, till May 10, 4,000 Indians stranded in foreign countries have been brought back through 23 fights.

In the Shramik Special trains, more than 5,00,000 migrant workers have been sent back to their home states through more than 400 trains.

She also said that passenger trains from New Delhi to 15 different locations will be started soon. The SOP for the movement of passengers in these trains have been prepared according to the trains' schedule, booking, confirmed e-ticket, screening before travelling and other health protocols.

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Ajay Sahni, chairman of the empowered group dealt with the privacy concerns associated with Aarogya Setu app. He said, "Once the user registers, his/her data is saved on the server and the app generates an unique anonymous ID by which the identity is not revealed to other users."

He also added the data is normally removed within 30 days from the server and if the user is tested negative for COVID-19 , the data is removed with 45 days and if the person is tested positive, the data is removed 60 days after the person is cured.

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