BHUBANESWAR: Even as Odisha continued to report over 10,000 cases a day for the fourth consecutive day, a distinct failure to increase testing, particularly in the western districts where the test positivity rate (TPR) is alarmingly high, has posed a serious concern.
The number of new cases dropped from 11,807 to 10,635 in last 24 hours as testing dipped across the districts. The State had conducted 48,757 tests including 17,946 through RT-PCR during the period against 50,864 including 20,365 RT-PCR tests on Saturday. The TPR, however, stood at 21.8 per cent (pc) as compared to 23.2 pc a day before.
Ten districts have higher TPR than the State average with Sambalpur topping the chart with 50.7 pc followed by Kalahandi at 43.8 pc, Bargarh at 32 pc, Angul at 34.7 pc, Sundargarh at 29 pc, Puri at 27.8 pc, Jharsuguda at 26.5 pc and Cuttack at 24.3 pc. As per the weekly positivity rate from May 2 to 8, the TPR in 18 districts of the State is above 20 pc.
The high positivity rate in many districts, notwithstanding, the State government has failed to ramp up testing as recommended by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). While the Ministry has been insisting on increasing RT-PCR level up to 70 pc of the overall testing, the ICMR has suggested to introduce mobile systems to augment RT-PCR testing and accelerate rapid antigen tests.
Recommending measures to optimise RT-PCR testing, the ICMR has asked not to repeat the test in any individual already found positive. It has directed to set up dedicated RAT booths in cities, towns and villages and introduce drive-through RAT testing facilities. The booths to be set up at multiple locations including healthcare facilities, housing complexes, offices, schools, colleges, community centres and other available vacant spaces will be operational on a 24X7 basis to improve access and availability of testing.
Additional Chief Secretary of Health PK Mohapatra said the decision has been taken to ramp up testing up to 75,000 a day with around 40 pc RT-PCR tests. “We are unable to conduct more RATs due to shortage of kits. We have urged the Centre to make provisions for more testing kits,” he said.
Of the 10,635 new cases, 6,012 were in quarantine and the rest detected during contact tracing. Khurda district recorded the highest 1,564 cases followed by Sundargarh (943) and Cuttack (887). The disease has claimed 19 lives including three each from Khurda and Kalahandi, one each from Angul, Balangir, Bhadrak, Dhenkanal, Ganjam, Gajapati, Jajpur, Jharsuguda, Puri, Rayagada, Sambalpur, Sonepur and Sundargarh districts. Of the 5,34,842 cases, 4,47,863 have recovered and 2,180 succumbed. The active cases stood at 84,746.