Covid-19: Concerns raised over low testing in Telangana
Hyderabad: The health department’s data show that all districts were reporting almost no Covid cases, except those in Hyderabad and its urban surroundings. Experts said that this indicated a lack of testing in rural areas. Testing should be ramped up, especially in light of the Centre’s warning on a surge in the next 40 days, they said.
On Wednesday, 12 new cases were reported in the state, of which eight were in Hyderabad district, three in Medchal Malkajgiri and one in Ranga Reddy. This has largely been the situation over the past week.
President of Healthcare Reforms Doctors Association (HRDA), Dr K. Mahesh Kumar, said even when Covid was at its peak, the state government had not revealed the correct data on number of infections and deaths, and so it was not expected that they would do it now.
“We don’t know if tests are being conducted at PHCs, sub centres, CHCs or district hospitals. Even the Union government is saying that the next few months are crucial, so Telangana has to ramp up testing, create awareness among people to get tested and send positive samples for genome sequencing,” Dr Mahesh Kumar said.
He added that it if any new variant was detected, the Union government was to be immediately informed. He said not just the authorities, people themselves were also taking it lightly.
Convener of Resident Doctors’ Association at NIMS, Dr Srinivas Gundagani, said there was a need to carry out more testing in all 33 districts, especially in larger towns like Nizamabad, Adilabad, Suryapet and Nalgonda, where at least a few positive cases could be expected.
He said people may go for testing when they experience symptoms, but the authorities too has to initiate testing, specifically medical officers and Superintendents of district hospitals, where some cases can be detected.
Positive cases on December 28
District No. of cases
Hyderabad 8
Medchal 3
Rangareddy 1
All other districts 0
Districts that have not recorded a single case from December 22-28: 24