Delhi raps Assam, Mizoram, Arunachal for low Cov tests

Guwahati: Assam, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh drew flak for low Covid testing and RT-PCR tests from the Centre as the Union health ministry on Wednesday asked several states to improve their average daily tests per million.
Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan, who chaired a high-level meeting to review the Covid situation in nine states on Wednesday, included the three northeastern states. These states are either reporting a surge in new daily Covid cases or a rise in positivity.
Assam, considered the gateway to the northeast, is reporting over 10% positivity for over last two weeks, while in capital Guwahati, the corresponding figure had been around 20%. Around 7,000 daily tests are being conducted in the state. In Mizoram, the positivity rate was 29.85% on Tuesday but only 469 tests were done. Of these, only 10 were RT-PCR tests. Arunachal Pradesh reported 54 new Covid cases in the last 24 hours, but the test number was reportedly 229.
Bhushan underscored the critical Covid control and management strategies, as a part of which all districts reporting higher positivity rate need to undertake adequate testing with higher proportion of RT-PCR tests.
The meeting pointed out that the average tests per million population is below the national average in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh, while the share of RT-PCR tests is very low in the states of Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam. These states were asked to urgently address the declining trend of RT-PCR tests and improve their average daily tests per million.
“It was noted that there remains substantial scope in increasing the pace of vaccination in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Assam, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. States were also exhorted to ensure strict surveillance in all the districts of concern that are showing a positivity rate of over 10% in the last week,” read a government release.
Dr Vinod Paul, member (health) at NITI Aayog, said looking at the global scenario, India needs to be on high alert.