MUMBAI: The community transmission in Maharashtra remains at a very lower rate, according to the random rapid test sampling survey in six districts of the state.
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had initiated the study in the worst-affected 83 hotspot districts to check for community transmission. In Maharashtra, the six districts - Beed, Parbhani, Nanded, Sangali, Jalgaon, and Ahmednagar - were chosen for the survey.
“We had taken a random total of 2385 blood samples from these six districts to check the spread of Covid-19. Of 2385, only 27 samples tested positive,” claimed Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope.
He said the ratio of coronavirus positive persons to the negative ones in this survey was 1 to13 which is quite low in the present situation.
“Parbhani district had reported the ratio of 1:51 - one of the least-affected among the districts in the random samples survey,” Tope said, adding that out of 396 random samples, only six had tested positive. Here, the community transmission ratio was 1:51, the minister added.
In Nanded, Tope said, five samples out of 393 tested positive. The ratio of community transmission in the district was 1 to 27. The ratio of the Sangali district is 1 to 25 as only five samples out of 400 tested positive there. In Ahmednagar district, out of 404 random swab samples, only five were positive with a 1:23 ratio of community transmission.
As per the state health department data, in Beed district, out of total 396 samples, only four samples tested positive. The ratio of community spreading in the district was 1:01.
The minister claimed that the lockdown had effectively helped to contain community transmission of Covid-19 in the state. For the rapid sampling to check the community transmission, the government had chosen 400 people in an average from each district identified by ICMR.