The positivity rate will be high due to focused testing, while the aim is to reduce case fatality, Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan said on Saturday.
“The doubling rate has reduced to an extent. Considering the daily increase in COVID-19 cases, be it 3,000 at the State-level or around 1,900 at the city-level, the positivity rate will be high when we undertake focused testing,” he told reporters.
The Health Secretary said that “aimless testing” was not being done. “The testing principle followed by Tamil Nadu is that of getting 100% coverage in containment areas by conducting fever camps. We want to bring in people from the affected areas to the fever camps.
The panel of medical experts had advised that 10,000 samples should be tested every day in Chennai, and we have reached that range,” he said.
“We are also testing persons who do not have symptoms but wish to be tested. Not just in Chennai, we are organising fever camps and testing people wherever there is an impact of the infection, such as in districts like Madurai, Cuddalore, Villupuram and Tiruvannamalai,” he added.
Preventing transmission
The aim is to prevent deaths due to COVID-19, he stressed. “The Chief Minister has said that there is no need for limits on testing. If a person tests positive, we isolate and treat them.”
Ramping up facilities
Noting that the lockdown was one of the strategies to prevent COVID-19 transmission, he said,
“By conducting door-to-door surveillance and fever camps, we are taking testing facilities closer to the people, instead of asking them to visit hospitals. According to medical experts, if we identify patients through such means, and isolate and treat them, they can recover in 10-11 days. Even now, 75%-80% persons are asymptomatic. When such people do not get tested and go around, it leads to disease transmission. So this methodology is effective in preventing transmission.”
The Health Department is ramping up medical infrastructure, he said. The number of COVID-19 care centres in districts and the number of beds in private hospitals is being increased. The National Institute of Ageing will be ready in a day or two, while beds are being increased in the Government Hospital for Thoracic Medicine, he said.
On mental health
Dr. Radhakrishnan urged people to avoid mental anxiety related to COVID-19. “This is why we have roped in social workers and counsellors. The recovery rate is 56%, while the mortality rate is 1.28%. We are not justifying the deaths. At the same time, we need to look at the mental health of people. People should neither resort to running away from hospitals nor discriminate against people who test positive for COVID-19,” he said.
Hospitals are like hotspots, he said, adding: “Hospitals should be cleaned regularly, and we are providing vitamin and zinc tablets to specialists, postgraduate medical students, CRRIs, paramedical staff and other workers. Frontline workers should protect themselves. There are problems of depression too. They can contact the State health helpline at 104.”
