Centre flags decline in Covid testing, asks states to increase it

With more than 300 districts reporting around 10 per cent test positivity, the Union Health Ministry has asked the states to enhance Covid detection, alerting the states on the possibility of missing out new Covid clusters and hotspots due to limited tests.

The directive comes a week after ICMR announced broadening of the testing strategy due to the highly transmissible Omicron variant, doing away with the requirement of testing the asymptomatic contacts of Covid positive patients unless those individuals belong to the ‘at risk” category.

But in a letter sent to the states on Monday, a senior ministry official said the states should read the ICMR advisory on “targeted testing” along with earlier health ministry guidelines that advised strategic and focused testing among people who are vulnerable, living in closed surroundings or in densely populated areas.

Read | Covid: Why Delhi hospitals are still testing generously

"In order to ensure that an effective track of the spread of the pandemic is kept and immediate action is initiated, it is incumbent upon all states and UTs to enhance testing,” Arti Ahuja, Additional Secretary in the ministry wrote to the states on Monday.

Experts too favour an increase in tests, notwithstanding some of the merits in the ICMR’s advice on targeted testing.

“To reduce testing or restrict it, after two years of the pandemic, is essentially admitting defeat and letting the infection run through the population, a strategy that carries its own risks. We have tested in larger numbers before and should certainly be doing better now, so many months after the second wave,” Gautam Menon, a professor of physics and biology at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai and Ashoka University told DH.

Ahuja said testing remained a key strategy for pandemic management due to (1) identification of new clusters and hotspots, which could facilitate immediate containment and isolation, limiting the spread of the infection and (2) prevention in disease progression to a severe category by strategic screening of those who are at high risk and vulnerable as well as in areas where the spread is likely to be higher.

As on Tuesday, 314 districts reported a test positivity of more than 10 per cent, while 150 have a positivity between 5-10 per cent. However, in big cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, there is a dip in Covid positive cases since last week along with a decline in testing numbers.

Bengaluru, on the other hand, reported an all time high of more than 25,000 cases after the number of tests remained more or less at the same range – between 80K and 115K per day and shot up to over 127,000 on Jan 17.

“The advantage of testing is people who test positive can be induced to isolate and will modify their behaviour accordingly, especially if they are in contact with people who are vulnerable. It's the elderly, unvaccinated and immunocompromised who are at most risk,” said Menon, who is tracking the Covid-19 pandemic for the past two years.

Without disclosing the names of the states or the number of tests, Ahuja said in her letter that the records kept by the ICMR were showing a drop.

While several scientists, public health experts and epidemiologists support ICMR’s targeted testing strategy, they said such a strategy might work for the highly transmissible Omicron variant but would not hold waters for other variants.

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