PUNE: State authorities on Saturday asked officials of nine districts with weekly positivity rates higher than 4.5% (the state average) to boost their testing levels, contact tracing and pace of vaccine coverage.
Kolhapur, Satara, Sangli, Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri, Buldhana, Pune (rural), Palghar and Raigad have all recorded test positivity rates higher than 4.5%, according to the weekly (June 25 to July 1) report prepared by the state public health department.
Kolhapur currently tops the state with a 10% positivity rate. Satara is second at 9.1%.
State health director Dr Archana Patil said the nine districts have been asked to step up surveillance and vaccination coverage. "A five-pronged strategy will have to be followed by these districts, which will mainly focus on improved testing, contact tracing, identification of hotspots, ensuring there are no major gatherings and good pace of vaccine coverage," she said.
The rest of the state's 26 districts are currently showing weekly positivity rates lower than 5%. But four of the ones with worrying numbers are within Pune division - Satara, Sangli, Solapur and Kolhapur.
Deputy commissioner, Santosh Patil, from Pune division, said he has asked these districts to rely more on RT-PCR testing. He said, "Kolhapur and Satara have been asked to focus more on adequate containment and crowd control. These districts have also been asked to keep an 80:20 ratio of RT-PCR and RAT tests."
He added that Covid-19 cases in Kolhapur rose slowly during the second wave. Its positivity rate in the first week of June was nearly 16%.
State relief and rehabilitation secretary Aseem Gupta said affected districts should ramp up lab capacities to boost RT-PCR testing. The weekly positivity rates are determined via RT-PCR testing data and Gupta said officials should shed over-reliance on rapid kits to get more accurate estimates of Covid spread in their jurisdictions.
Data from the public health department shows that out of 14.74 lakh tests conducted in the week, 6.46 were via RT-PCR and 8.27 were done using rapid antigen kits (RATs).
State Covid-19 task force member, Dr Shashank Joshi, said it's worrying to note that there are nine districts with high test positivity rates.
“We have to increase testing, tracing of contacts and enforce public health policies more strictly," he said, adding that at least 30 contacts per positive case should be traced by authorities in these districts.
Dr Joshi also said both genome sequencing and sero surveillance will have to be scaled up to keep an eye out for variants.
