Karnataka cuts down number of Covid-19 tests

The state has downsized the number of tests it intends to do from 1.75 lakh per day to 60,000 per day.

Health commissioner D Randeep said the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) has made this recommendation on the basis of a declining Covid test positivity rate in the state.

A TAC member specified that the reduction is to reduce the huge burden on the state exchequer imposed by daily testing.

“The measure was recommended because it has now been about two weeks since the festival season, the bypolls and the huge crowds which congregated for (actor) Puneeth Rajkumar’s funeral and yet, there has not been any substantial increase in new case numbers. The test positivity rate remains low,” Dr P G Girish, director of the Directorate of Medical Education, said.

According to official data, the state’s test positivity rate was 0.34 per cent between October 31 to November 9. Consequently, as per the new daily target, the state plans to test 25,000 people in Bengaluru Urban, followed by 8,000 in Dakshina Kannada, 3,000 each in Mysuru and Udupi and 2,000 each in Belagavi, Hassan and Tumkuru.

Some 20 per cent of all these tests are to be rapid antigen test kits, with 80 per cent being RT-PCR tests. Despite lowering the number of tests, the TAC also recommended an intensified testing campaign in districts and villages bordering Maharashtra and Kerala where more travelers are coming through. “We should also come up with a plan to relegate 50 per cent of all tests in district headquarters,” stated the document which was issued on Monday.

Another focus area was children with symptomatic students in 6th and 12th standards requiring immediate testing (with their consent) and isolation.

“Every week, 5 per cent random testing for kids. And if the rate of infection in a school is more than 1 per cent in one week, classes in which the children are in must be shut down,” the document said.

More cases this week

Nevertheless, the data shows that increased testing results in more positive cases being found. For example, a slight increase in the number of testing this week (6.76 lakh tests compared to 5.45 lakh two weeks), generated 1,786 new cases over a seven-day period this past week, compared to 1,714 cases two weeks ago.

Calculations of the reproduction rate of the outbreak in the state by Dr Sitabhra Sinha of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences in Chennai, also show that the state’s R0 has been averaging about 0.95 over the course of nearly a month. In Bengaluru, it was 1.04 between November 7 and 12, indicating the virus is spreading again.

“We can’t say that we have dodged a bullet with the last festival season - because as events showed before the second wave, cases can multiply at a rapid rate. We are now worried about the Christmas festival to come. We still need to be vigilant,” Randeep said.

He added that a TAC meeting on Friday will consider changing the testing strategy to include people in the service industry. “If case numbers increase, we will increase the daily testing targets,” he said.

Check out the latest videos from DH: