Lukewarm response to mass testing drive
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: June 11, 2021 -

WITH mass sample testing drives continuing in different districts and assembly constituencies, it's not surprising that the Covid-19 caseload has been increasing and consequently swelling the numbers of infected people in need of treatment at hospitals and isolation from the general population.

Even if the mass testing drives have been adding to the work load of the healthcare workers, the same shall have to be sustained at any cost for timely tracing of the vectors will help prevent further spread of the infectious disease, which has been affecting all the sectors.

As complacency on the part of the public towards following the safety guidelines and oversight by the government to sustain the trace, test and treat protocols at the onset of second wave of the Covid-19 led to dilution of the gains made in the first year of the pandemic, the on-going testing drive must be persisted with especially in those areas where the rate of infection is considerably high.

Contrary to the number of tests conducted on a daily basis in the first few weeks ofthe second wave hovering around the 2000-mark, there has been significant improvement in the number of samples tested since late May till date.

Subsequent to ramping up of the tests, the state has been recording an average of over 700 new cases per day for over a week but the fact remains that without sustaining the test rates the virus would continue to spread and deepen the health crisis to such a critical level that both healthcare service providers and local volunteers involved in tackling the pandemic would become lethargic.

Successful containment of the virus will also depend on the public response to the testing drive and as such the local volunteers need to convince at-least one member in each family to volunteer for the test.

In view of the government relaxing the curfew for few hours on specific days to enable the citizens replenish the food stock apart from limited opening up of some public service sectors, it quite possible that those who venture out of home might contract the disease and transmit it in the family.

Thus, both government authorities and local volunteers will have to shoulder the responsibility of driving home the point that early diagnosis of the virus will help save lives and avoid complicacy in treatment.

The public must be vividly explained that purpose of conducting the mass testing drive is to detect and isolate the infected people so as to break the chain of transmission of the virulent virus.

Under no circumstance should the state's daily test positivity rate, which is above the national average, be taken lightly considering the fact the virus mutant in the second wave is highly transmissible and fatal, if not detected and treated at the earliest possible.

Therefore, the testing drive should be intensified in those localities where the rate of infection is high or the turnout is lower than estimated.

Moreover, the residents should be made aware that contracting the disease is no reason to feel embarrassed but will only pay a high price if they try to conceal and seek treatment after deterioration of their health condition.