Covid in Assam: Lack of kits brings down testing to 18,000 a day

GUWAHATI: Covid-19 tests in Assam went down by almost 50% to around 18,000 on Sunday because of scarcity of test kits, even as the state continues to record over 1,000 cases every day.
The situation is similar in Guwahati, where the test numbers declined by almost same proportion despite Kamrup (Metropolitan) district registering the highest number of cases in the state. Maximum tests conducted in a day in the state was 1.43 lakh on August 12.
Health department sources said a delay in procurement of test kits has reduced the number of tests, although the state government has been stressing on the need of more testing to isolate the virus.
Senior officials of the National Health Mission (NHM), Assam, and health department did not respond to the queries on finding a lasting solution to the matter, even as the number of tests on in Guwahati city was barely little more than 2,000 on Sunday due to shortage of kits.
Assam NHM director Lakshmanan S confirmed to TOI that the testing drives have been facing a shortage of kits, without divulging much details on the sources of procurement of the test kits. “Yes, there was a scarcity of test kits for few days,” Lakshmanan, who has been overseeing procurement of the kits, said.
Although the number of tests done on Monday was not made public till filing of this report, Lakshmanan said earlier in the day that they had received about 90,000 kits on Sunday. “The supply has again restarted from yesterday (Sunday),” he informed.
While the state government announces one relaxation after another, health experts feel a fall in the number of tests will make things worse for Assam. “We have come to know that there is a shortage of test kits in both government and private hospitals. We hope the government will address the issue urgently because once the testing rate falls, infected people will roam about spreading the virus,” Satyajit Borah, president of the Assam state branch of the Indian Medical Association, said.
He also cautioned that a shortage of the test kits will also disrupt Covid tests being carried out by private hospitals, all of whom have been mandated by the state health department to carry out tests to detect Covid-positive cases recently.
A notification issued by principal secretary to the state health department Samir K Sinha on August 20 stated that the department has decided that every private sector nursing home and hospital in Assam is deemed to be a Covid screening centre The order added that these screening centres should be made functional by all private nursing homes across districts within three days.