Recovery rate promising, but more testing needed: Experts

Ranchi: In the last fortnight, the state’s recovery rate from Covid-19 has vastly improved and stands at 75.85%, much higher than the national figure of 58.56%, but the testing of samples per day has come down by a few hundred, prompting medical experts to call for more aggressive testing to effectively combat the viral infection and prevent its community transmission.
In the last 16 days since June 13, a total of 1,039 patients were discharged in comparison to only 648 new cases. The experts said while it is encouraging to see that the recoveries are nearing double the figure of fresh cases, there should not be any room for complacency as far as the testing is concerned.
The initial days of June saw the number of tests peaking at 3,000 per day (on June 7 and 8) but the weekly average gradually fell from 2,379.85 in the first week to 2,276.42. During this period, the return of the migrants was also at its highest and the daily fresh cases shot up to an average of 187 in the second week. The third week had a much more reduced average daily testing of 2,225 and further dipped to 2,151 in the fourth week (till June 28).
Expressing concern over the dip in testing, a civil surgeon, unwilling to be named as he is not an authorised spokesperson of the state health department, said, “It is not the time to feel complacent about the recovery rate. Although, it’s a good sign that people are winning over the virus, we seriously need more tests to prevent the risk of community transmission.” He added that the situation is scary as people without any travel history are no longer in the low-risk group.
On Sunday, a 45-year-old medical shop owner, who has no travel history, tested positive in Koderma. Indian Medical Association (IMA) state president A K Singh said the Koderma patient may have come in contact with an infected and asymptomatic person, but supported aggressive testing to stop community transmission.
Stating that the number of cases detected is directly linked to the rate of testing, Singh said, “I believe that we should go for more tests to cover the maximum number of people and detect every single case out there.”
State health secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni said the current daily average of 2,000 tests is by and large satisfactory. He said, “More tests were done in early June because of the heavy influx of migrants. The per day test figures will naturally keep changing and it is not a reason for worry at the moment. In May-end and early June, the migrant influx was at its peak and we tried to trace the maximum suspects through tests. The issue of migrants’ return is almost over now and we are largely able to maintain an average of about 2,000 tests per day.”
Kulkarni further said the department is likely to increase the daily testing rate from July onwards. “Our door-to-door surveys are on in all districts and in containment zones. It will result in flooding of more samples. Moreover, three new labs at the medical colleges of Hazaribag, Dumka and Daltonganj are getting ready to test samples in about 10 days. Necessary hardware and other equipment have already arrived. The state’s testing capacity will increase soon.”
Praveen Karn, state epidemiologist and in-charge of the state’s Covid fight, said the three new labs will initially target 400 tests each. These labs will help the state’s testing capacity to a minimum of 3,000 from July, he added.
Currently, four government labs at Rims and Itki in Ranchi, MGM in Jamshedpur and PMCH in Dhanbad are conducting the tests. A private hospital — TMH in Jamshedpur— and four private labs in the state are also empanelled to conduct the tests.
According to the health department records, of the 1,36,367 samples collected till June 28, a total of 1,35,306 are tested and 2,364 have tested positive. Of them, 1,793 were discharged and 559 are currently active besides 12 deaths. On Sunday and Monday, the state reported one death each and the toll now stands 14.