Nearly two weeks after Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai announced that the daily tests will be increased to 30,000 in the State, districts have not been able to even conduct half of this number.
This is mainly because the Indian Council of Medical Research’s (ICMR) circular on purposive testing strategy - under which only at risk and symptomatic contacts of the infected persons should be tested - still holds good. District authorities said they are not finding enough people meeting this requirement for testing.
Following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s video-conference with Chief Ministers of all States on April 27, Mr. Bommai had announced that the COVID situation is under control in Karnataka. However, as the test positivity rate (TPR) had slightly increased since the first week of April, testing would be ramped up in the State, he had said.
“We will increase daily tests to 30,000 of which 15,000 will be done in Bengaluru and remaining in the rest of Karnataka,” he had said.
However, daily tests have remained in the range of 10,000-11,000. Around 15,000 tests were done only on two days last week, half of which were in BBMP limits. District health officers (DHOs) that The Hindu spoke to said they were unable to conduct more tests as the ICMR’s circular on purposive testing strategy has limited the scope of testing.
“While we have been asked to ramp up tests, we are finding it difficult to find people who fit into the ICMR’s criteria on purposive testing. Besides, after the third wave, people have become more complacent and opt for self-medication rather than seeing a doctor and getting tested,” said G. Srinivas, Bengaluru Urban DHO.
Lower contacts
He said the testing numbers are low as the number of contacts is also low due to less number of cases being reported as of now.
On January 10, the ICMR had issued guidelines on purposive testing that said contacts of infected patients do not need to be tested unless identified as high-risk based on age.
According to the advisory, asymptomatic patients undergoing surgical or non-surgical invasive procedures, including pregnant women in/near labour who are hospitalised for delivery, should not be tested unless warranted or symptoms develop. It said no emergency procedure, including surgeries, should be delayed due to lack of a test. Besides, inter-State travellers also need not be tested.
Despite this, for some time (when the transmission was very high after January 18 in the third wave), Karnataka was doing over 2 lakh tests. In fact, 54,08,790 tests were done in January, the highest so far.
Following that the TAC had recommended that the State should stop random testing, focus only on symptomatic persons and limit the daily tests to 75,000. Subsequently, around 50,000 tests were being done till mid-March after which the numbers reduced to around 30,000. Subsequently, from the second week of April the tests further reduced to less than 10,000 on weekdays and less than 5,000 on weekends.
Seeking TAC’s opinion
When contacted, Health Commissioner Randeep D. said the tests are still in the range of 10,000-11,000 because the Centre’s advisory on purposive testing limits the scope of testing. “We will examine if the scope of this testing can be enhanced. We will also seek the TAC’s opinion in this regard,” he said.
“Meanwhile, we have asked the district authorities to test all ILI and SARI cases apart from those with symptoms and those hospitalised with respiratory infections,” Mr. Randeep added.
