Kerala to ramp up testing in areas with high positivity rate

Kerala has revised the guidelines for COVID-19 testing in the state and is increasing testing by nearly ten times in localities where the transmission of the virus is extremely high. Kerala Health Minister Veena George, in a statement on June 17, said that the guidelines have been changed to increase the number of tests in local bodies, corporations, municipalities, and panchayats based on the Test Positivity Rate (TPR) there. TPR is the number of samples that test positive in a group of samples.

As per the guidelines, the tests will be done based on the average number of COVID-19 cases reported in a week. If the TPR is above 30% for a week in a particular area, then the samples tested will be ten times more than the number of cases reported in the last three days of that week. For example, if the number of cases is 100 for three consecutive days, the samples tested will be 3000. The testing will be brought down if TPR comes down.

If the TPR in an area for a week is between 20- 30%, the samples tested will be six times the number of cases of the last three days. And if the TPR is between 2-20%, the samples tested will be three times the number of cases reported in the last three days. It was also decided that five times more testing would be conducted in areas where the TPR is below  2%. The testing method will be pooled RT-PCR with five samples in a pool. A pooled sample method is where multiple swab samples are put together and tested using a single RT-PCR test kit.

"The target for testing will be decided by the District Surveillance Unit concerned, after analysing the situation in municipalities, corporations, and panchayat wards. Directives can be sent to the nearby health care facilities to give special instructions for institutions, industrial units, factories, which need more surveillance. Mobile testing labs can also be used if needed," the health minister's statement read.

Kerala on June 17 reported 12,469 cases with a TPR of 10.85%. The state eased lockdown regulations from June 17. With this, the triple, partial and complete lockdown, as well as lockdown relaxations,  will be imposed on local bodies based on the TPR in each region. The state was under lockdown from May 8 to June 16.