The Telangana government announced on November 13 that people who test false positive must also quarantine themselves, without fail.
No medical tests are 100% correct and in case of Covid, anyone who tests positive once is considered positive as per ICMR guidelines, Dr Srinivasa Rao, director of health, told the media.
He was responding to a question on the actor Chiranjeevi’s Covid status. He had tested positive and the next day he announced that after getting tested again he tested negative.
Rao said, “He might have got negative result but as per protocol there are no false or true positives. It is better that even if anyone tests negative, they quarantine themselves for some time.”
He added that sensitivity and specificity of tests can sometimes vary in any medical test but that should not be treated as being free of Covid if any test comes back positive.
Rao said, “We have collected data of both government and private medical staff of who should be vaccinated in the first step and given the same to the centre.”
A medical protocol will be available in 2021, he expected, but also alerted that vaccine cannot be the solution.