CHENNAI: When the COVID-19 cases are on a rise, common sense suggests an increase in testing. The trend in the State, however, has been quite opposite. From the single-day spike of 266 cases on May 2, the State went on to record a whopping 1,162 cases on June 1.
The deaths too have risen to 208 by June 3 from just 27 at the end of April. Despite the rise, the average daily testing has hovered around 11,000 since last month, even after the expert committee a few days ago recommended an increase in testing.
Experts say number of tests needs to be increased at the earliest.
“We may need to test an average of 15,000 people a day at this point to flatten the curve,’’ says former Director of Public Health Dr K Kolandasamy.
Last week, the State’s medical expert committee had suggested Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami to ramp up testing immediately to prevent manifold-rise in fatalities.
On May 7, when the State tested its daily high till then of 14,102 people, the confirmed cases were 580. On May 8, when the second high till then of 13,883 tests were done, 600 cases were recorded. On subsequent days, the testing rates came down to 12,000 and even touched a low of 8,270 on May 16.
On May 29, when the State recorded 743 cases, testing stood at 11,441. When the daily average cases crossed 800 on May 25, testing was just 11,835. While the State touched 938 cases on May 30, only 12,039 tests were conducted on the day.
There was an influx of returnees to the State after May 16 but the testing average has not increased even after 1.26 lakh people arrived in the State by various means as of June 4.
Need for focused testing
The rising cases could be an indication that more testing has to be done, especially in hot spots.
“There is no doubt about community spread at this moment. The rise in number of deaths is a clear indicator of the severity of the spread and we need to test the right people,’ ’says Dr Ram Gopalakrishnan, infectious diseases specialist at Apollo Hospitals.
Dr Gopalakrishan adds that testing must be focused in hot spots, and all the in-patients at hospitals must be tested.
“Testing the right people is now important. For Chennai, vulnerable population in hot spots should be tested whereas in other districts, people in low prevalence areas should be tested,’’ adds Gopalakrishnan.
Dr Kolandasamy says that instead of mass testing, focused testing of the elderly and people with comorbidities is important.
“Apart from those mentioned in the ICMR guidelines, testing all pregnant women is a must as it will help in understanding the trend in a specific area, as expectant mothers may not travel outside much,’’ he says.
Dr Kolandasamy adds that due to the high presence of cases, more tests will definitely bring in more cases but the resources must be used prudently.
“There are more cases in certain districts, but mass testing could be misused as big companies may want to test all their staff if one tested positive. People too would want to test unnecessarily,’’ he adds.
‘No control on tests’
Meanwhile, the State tested its single-day maximum of 15,991 people on Thursday.
Director of Public Health Dr TS Selvavinayagam said the number of tests is not artificial or controlled.
“Whoever needs a test, we are testing, as per the ICMR protocol,’’ he told Express.