There is a stark difference in the positivity rate with respect to testing for COVID-19 among different districts within the State.
According to an analysis done by the State war room, the district-wise positivity rate in the last 15 days ranges from 24% in Bengaluru Rural to 5.6% in Kodagu. The positivity rate is an important indicator that assesses the spread of an outbreak. It is defined as the percentage of people who are found to be infected by COVID-19 from those who are being tested.
Giridhar R. Babu, member of the State’s COVID-19 Technical Advisory Committee, said that test positivity is an important indicator that needs to be monitored as it shows the district’s overall efforts in testing and identifying cases. “Increasing testing will decrease the test positivity. Hence, it has to be combined with other important indicators such as deaths per million and Influenza like Illnesses and Severe Acute Respiratory Infection cases detected,” he said.
The State average positivity rate over the last 15 days stands at 15.3%. Ten districts, including Bengaluru Urban, have a higher positivity rate than the State average. Meanwhile, 20 districts have a positivity rate less than the State average. Experts point out that there is a need to keep the positivity rate within 5%. A higher positivity rate could mean that many of the COVID-19 cases are going undetected. They state that effective contact tracing, isolating COVID-19 patients would help in reducing the positivity rate. There has been a huge jump in the positivity rate since July after the State began witnessing a huge surge in the number of COVID-19 cases.
According to the State war room data, the positivity rate in Bengaluru in the last 15 days stood at 19.5. Hephsiba Rani Korlapati, BBMP war room special officer, said that the Chief Secretary had directed them that the positivity rate should be below 5 %. “We are now having more field level teams to ensure that there is more contact tracing and testing so that we are able to reduce the positivity rate,” she said.
Annies Kanmani Joy, Deputy Commissioner of Kodagu district, which has the lowest positivity rate of 5.6%, said that effective home quarantine of inter-State and international passengers has helped in keeping their positivity rate low.
“To curb the spread, we also advise people coming from other districts to Kodagu to stay at home,” she said.
