Health dept directs 13 dists to scale up testing

Pune: The state public health department has directed 13 districts, including Akola, Buldhana, Bhandara and Gadchiroli, to scale up testing, after they were found to have had a sample collection of less than 5,000 in the December 13-19 week.
A state health official said testing should only be scaled up against the backdrop of the Centre’s directive to all states and districts to increase surveillance. “Districts have been given funds to scale up their infrastructure for laboratories and there is no reason why they should be testing less,” he said.
The 13 districts lagging in testing were directed to scale it up in a meeting. “Below-5,000 weekly testing is not acceptable. It has to improve,” said the official.
Some local authorities claimed that they were not reporting too many Covid cases. But the Centre has asked the districts to conduct door-to-door case searches and test of all SARI/ILI and vulnerable/co-morbid people, besides ensuring right proportion of RT- PCR tests are conducted daily and contact tracing of all Covid-positive persons.
Last week, a total of 7.6 lakh tests were conducted in the state. Experts stressed that no laxity should be shown in testing, especially in the wake of Omicron variant. The authorities stated that the contacts of an infected person should be tested immediately. Former state health director Dr PP Doke said it was known that Omicron spread more though it might be less virulent. “No district can take it easy on testing. Some people do not even approach laboratories for testing. There should be proper surveillance, especially because it is the winter season now,” he told TOI.
Doke said the testing rules might change if cases increased eventually. “As of now, only international passengers are being tested. There is no community transmission yet, but we cannot be lax,” he said, stressing on scaled up vaccination.
The Centre issued specific guidelines to the states against the backdrop of “initial signs of surge” in cases of Covid-19 as well as increased detection of the variant of concern (VoC), Omicron, in different parts of the country.