HYDERABAD: The government appears to have decided to conduct only limited Covid-19 tests every day, if instructions doing the rounds in various districts are anything to go by.
Hence forth, only 50 tests should be conducted at each public health centres and urban health centres every day, while at community health centres, the limit has been fixed at 100. The highest number of daily tests – 200 – will be conducted at district general hospitals, as per the instructions, being relayed in WhatsApp groups administered by district administrations and district level health officials, to the field-level staff.
With Covid-19 taking a firm grip in the community, and the state complaining to the Centre that it does not have enough testing kits, the latest restrictions will reveal the true extent of Covid-19 spread in the state. It may be recalled that the Telangana High Court had repeatedly pulled up the state government for its poor testing rates following which testing was ramped up to one lakh plus for a few days. Subsequently, it was between 60,000 and 80,000 tests a day, with the numbers being on the lower side during the weekends.
Most of the tests conducted are Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT), which detect the disease only if the person has a high viral load. The overall reliability of RAT tests is only around 50 per cet while RT-PCR tests have 80 per cent reliability, but their ability to detect the presence of virus depends on the timing an infected person gets tested. However, with the government making it clear that only people with demonstrable symptoms are to be tested at its testing centres, it is not clear how those experiencing mild symptoms, or those who may have come into close contact with others who tested positive, will be tested in Telangana.
Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar to personally monitor Covid-19 situation
Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao on Saturday instructed Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar to personally monitor Covid-19 situation in the state by reviewing the issue thrice a day.
The instructions were issued soon after the portfolio of medical and health was transferred from Etala Rajender.
Rao asked Somesh Kumar to be cautious about Covid-19 surge in the state and ensure that there would be no problems in making available injections like remdesivir, vaccines, oxygen and beds in hospitals.
The Chief Minister also deputed special secretary in CMO P. Rajasekhar Reddy to regularly monitor the pandemic from the CMO. He sought all high-level officials in the medical and health department to be on alert and work to free the state from the clutches of corona as early as possible.
