NEW DELHI: Following the Central government’s instructions to enhance Covid-19 testing in order to track the spread of the pandemic, the Delhi government will soon initiate citizen-centric plans, especially in the crowded and congested areas and also in the prisons.
The Department of Health and Family Welfare will once again begin strategic testing of asymptomatic individuals in community settings, contacts of confirmed cases, patients who stand discharged as per home isolation guidelines and individuals undertaking inter-state travel. “We will focus on areas where people live closer to each other. One example is prisons,” said Principal Secretary, Health, Manisha Saxena.
“Earlier, the ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) had said that there was no point of testing asymptomatic patients. But now, we have to test everyone in order to avoid the spread before the pandemic flares up. With the previous ICMR guidelines, the testing had gone down to a very low level over the past few days. However, we will be laying out some plans on how to conduct tests in crowded places.”
According to the new instructions from the Centre, Covid testing remains a key strategy for pandemic management as it helps in the identification of new clusters and hotspots of infection which can, in turn, facilitate immediate action for containment such as setting up of containment zones, contact tracing, quarantining, isolation and follow-up. This can enable the state and district administration to curb the spread of infection. Also, this will ensure a reduction in mortality and morbidity.
The instructions issued on Wednesday further read: “The progression of disease to a severe category can be averted by strategic testing of those who are at high risk and more vulnerable, as well as in areas where the spread is likely to be higher. All those who are symptomatic must be tested and all at-risk contacts of the laboratory-confirmed cases must also be tested.”
Purpose of strategic testing
Strategic testing to include