KOLKATA: With the number of swab samples tested crossing one lakh, the positivity rate in West Bengal has slipped below the national average. As on Tuesday, Bengal had tested 1,02,282 samples and its positivity rate had declined as low as 2.9%, against the national average that has been pegged at around 3%. Health experts said that this was a good sign but warned that this should not be a reason to reduce testing.
Also known as rate of positive case, this parameter is an indicator of the spread of the virus. Even two weeks before, this rate was as high as 4.8% in the state. Ramping up the number of tests in the past few weeks has brought this rate down.
“There seems to have been a lot of hard work and efforts to increase testing in the past few weeks which have pulled down the positivity rate. In addition, the doubling time which is more relevant in terms of the ferocity of the spread has improved. This shows there has been some control in the spread of the infection,” said cardiothoracic surgeon Kunal Sarkar.
On Tuesday, 8,712 tests were conducted, of which 136 samples tested positive. Amid the late start and criticism for not testing more samples, the state started ramping up testing towards April-end. For the past five days, an average of 7,900 tests have been done every day. Even till the first week of May number of daily tests was around 2,000.
“Now we have 23 laboratories conducting Covid tests, licence for more laboratories is expected to come. We will be targeting to achieve a daily test of about 10,000,” said a health department officials.
From symptomatic patients and close contacts of positive patients, the testing norms have been expanded to include symptomatic patients, who need to undergo surgery, as well as asymptomatic close contacts of positive patients. Last week, the health department also launched a sentinel surveillance project to test three categories of people — pregnant women, asymptomatic OPD and admitted patients and healthcare workers —across 23 districts.
Also known as rate of positive case, this parameter is an indicator of the spread of the virus. Even two weeks before, this rate was as high as 4.8% in the state. Ramping up the number of tests in the past few weeks has brought this rate down.
“There seems to have been a lot of hard work and efforts to increase testing in the past few weeks which have pulled down the positivity rate. In addition, the doubling time which is more relevant in terms of the ferocity of the spread has improved. This shows there has been some control in the spread of the infection,” said cardiothoracic surgeon Kunal Sarkar.
On Tuesday, 8,712 tests were conducted, of which 136 samples tested positive. Amid the late start and criticism for not testing more samples, the state started ramping up testing towards April-end. For the past five days, an average of 7,900 tests have been done every day. Even till the first week of May number of daily tests was around 2,000.
“Now we have 23 laboratories conducting Covid tests, licence for more laboratories is expected to come. We will be targeting to achieve a daily test of about 10,000,” said a health department officials.
From symptomatic patients and close contacts of positive patients, the testing norms have been expanded to include symptomatic patients, who need to undergo surgery, as well as asymptomatic close contacts of positive patients. Last week, the health department also launched a sentinel surveillance project to test three categories of people — pregnant women, asymptomatic OPD and admitted patients and healthcare workers —across 23 districts.
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