BHUBANESWAR: As daily testing figures rise significantly at national level, it has remained in the sub-4,000 bracket in last 10 days - except for three - despite an increase in the number of testing centres in Odisha.
The national testing figures rose from 1,28,868 on June 1 to 1,37,158 on June 2 but it came down from 3,877 tests to 3,324 in Odisha. The number of samples tested in the State was more than 4,000 on three days between May 24 and June 2.
Data available on the dashboard of Health and Family Welfare Department shows that as many as 4,679, 4,259 and 4,641 tests were conducted on May 26, 28 and 30 respectively. The number of samples tested on May 31 was 3,559.
The State had conducted 5,612 tests on May 19, so far the highest for a single day. On four more occasions last month, above 5,000 tests were conducted per day though Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had announced an augmentation in testing capacity across State in view of the return of migrants.
He had directed the department to ramp up testing capacity to 15,000 a day by the month end. However,, health authorities claimed that tests are being conducted as per the revised guideline of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare after consultation with Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
As per the latest guideline of ICMR, NHM Director Shalini Pandit said, the focus is on people, who have developed symptoms for influenza-like illness (ILI) and frontline workers involved in containment and mitigation of COVID-19 having such signs, besides asymptomatic direct and high-risk contacts of confirmed cases.
Health experts say the strategy is confusing since there are reports of migrants facing opposition from entering their villages without tests after completing institutional quarantine. There are also reports of delay in tests after collection of samples, they said. "Government should aggressively carry out tests of migrants coming from the worst-hit states. It would help ascertain community level transmission," said an expert.