The Health Department has asked all districts to increase COVID-19 testing so as to keep the test positivity rate or TPR (percentage of people who test positive amongst those tested) at less than 5%, preferably around 2%.
The directive has been issued after perusing the State’s weekly COVID-19 report from August 1 to 7, which showed that districts such as Malappuram (10.3%), Kasaragod (10.1), Thiruvananthapuram (9.2), Ernakulam (8.3), and Alappuzha (6.1) have a high TPR.
The TPR in other districts are Kollam (2.1%), Pathanamthitta (3.2), Kottayam (3.1), Idukki (2.1), Thrissur (3.9), Palakkad (3.8), Kozhikode (2.7), Wayanad (2.5), and Kannur (2.3).
According to the Health Department, test positivity rate is an indicator recommended by experts to assess the adequacy of testing. The positivity rate goes up when the epidemic grows and testing lags behind. TPR thus captures the size of the epidemic and the scale of testing in a single number.
A general guidance provided by the World Health Organization is that for a place to be confident about adequacy of testing, the test positivity should not exceed 10% and ideally should remain less than 5%. Test positivity rate for Kerala is 3.3%.
The WHO also suggests that if the test positivity rate remains less than 5% for the past 14 days, the region is classified as having good testing.
Kasaragod, Alappuzha, Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam, Wayanad, Kozhikode, Pathanamthitta, and Malappuram districts have been asked to focus on rigorous cluster contaminant strategies. All districts have been asked to identify clusters timely by daily mapping the cases and implementing containment strategies.
Between August 1 and 7, Kerala reported 8,087 cases and 29 deaths. The number of COVID-19 tests done during this period was 1,67,798.
The department directs that while testing has to be increased, it should be done in a planned manner by establishing systems for ensuring testing of all individuals with influenza like symptoms (ILI).
The districts have been asked to engage with the private health sector to encourage more testing in private hospitals and utilising maximum capacity of RTPCR-based techniques such as TrueNat, GeneXpert.
Antigen-based tests should be used judiciously in cluster containment zones for testing vulnerable individuals including the elderly, people with co-morbidity, pregnant and postnatal women, and children with severe malnutrition.
The department also asked Alappuzha, Wayanad, and Kasaragod districts, where the bed occupancy in COVID first-line treatment centres has exceeded 70%, to monitor the situation and start more FLTCs as planned in stages II and III.
