PATNA: Bihar has been witnessing a decline in the Covid-19 positivity rate noticeably from July 27.
On Tuesday, the state recorded an encouraging decline in the positivity rate to 4.26% from 6.04% amid 60,000 testing in the last 24 hours.
State principal health secretary Pratyay Amrit claimed that decline in the positivity rate of Covid-19 has started taking placing mainly from July 27, when
the testing was ramped up.
On Thursday, he said that the state has crossed 60000-mark in daily testing in the last 24 hours.
“Not only this, but we have also started testing of general patients for Covid -19 with the rapid antigen kits when they come to hospitals for non-Covid diseases. This will help us to prevent infection among the medical fraternity on duty also”, he said.
The official said on July 27, the positivity rate in Bihar was 14.66%. It declined to 12.63% on July 28, 12.32% on July 29, 11.27% on July 30, 10.08% on July 31, 6.81% on August 1, 6.52% on August 2, 6.04% on August 3 and 4.26% on August 4. Similarly, the testing rate has also been ramped up from 16275 on July 27 to more than 60000 on August 5.
Amrit said that the number of testing increased with the use of rapid antigen kits. The proper ways of creating awareness and increasing levels of precaution among the people have also helped us in bringing down the positivity rate of Covid-19. He said that the kits have been made available to all district hospitals.
To a question on redressal of grievances, the officials said an app called ‘Sanjivan’ has been developed to provide all information to seekers including on the availability of beds and details about testing and self-isolation facilities.
“In addition to all this, daily health bulletins are also issued to the kin and attendants of Covid-19 patients twice a day -- at 11 am and 6 pm”, he said.
The health department has extended the services of home collection of samples for the RT-PCR tests through private pathological laboratories. “The people giving their samples for Covid-19 tests from their homes are charged Rs 300 extra with the fixed rate of Rs 2,500”, Amrit added.