Telangana failing to detect new Covid-19 cases due to low testing

HYDERABAD: The low Covid-19 testing in Telangana has become a major cause for concern. Since the beginning of this week, the State has not been able to cross the one lakh mark in the number of tests. On April 25 and 26, only 73,275 and 99,638 tests were conducted. In sharp contrast, the State had clocked 1.30 lakh tests on April 20. Owing to the fewer number of tests, the Test Positivity Rate (TPR) was also at 9.5 per cent and 10.7 per cent on April 25 and 26. Moreover, going by the current TPR, for every 10,000 tests the State is failing to conduct, about 1,000 cases are being missed by the system.

Assuming that the State had conducted 1.30 lakh tests in the last two days, it is likely that 6,000 to 8,000 more cases would have been detected. However, with the low testing, it is likely that these cases will be detected much later or remain undetected. Alarmingly, the government has also stated that there is a shortage of Rapid Antigen Kits, indicating that matters may not improve anytime soon. Experts are of the opinion that testing is the only way to arrest the rapid spread of the virus.

“Rapid Antigen Tests are a quick way to find out new cases and ensure that the person is isolated in time, instead of leaving him/her to spread the infection while waiting for RT-PCR results. The State must raise the number of tests to two lakh per day,” said Dr GVS Murthy from the Public Health Foundation of India.