HYDERABAD: Stressing on the need for more COVID-19 tests, Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist, World Health Organization (WHO), said on Tuesday that India, on the whole, was testing much less than other countries. She was in conversation with Telangana IT and MAUD Minister KT Rama Rao in a webinar on “The Vaccine Race”.
Speaking at the event, Dr Soumya pointed out that an ideal Test Positivity Rate (the percentage of people who test positive for Covid-19 out of the total tests conducted) must be below 5 per cent. If this figure increases, it means that testing is not being done adequately.
“India, on the whole, is testing much less than some countries that have done well like Germany, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and USA. Every public health department must set some benchmarks on how many tests need to be conducted per lakh or per million,” said Dr Soumya.
She further noted that testing has to be extensive especially in cities with a dense population where transmission is higher, while for rural areas an ILI-SARI surveillance method could be done. “In rural areas, constant surveillance can be done for anyone with ILI and SARI symptoms. But for cities, the way ahead is to test,” she said.
While Minister KTR raised the most pertinent question in the minds of the public on how long we may have to live with the virus, as some recent comments from the WHO noted that a vaccine may never come, Dr Soumya noted that going forward, irrespective of the vaccine race, governments will have to keep monitoring 8-10 indicators of sound public health.
“The virus can be controlled with efforts at the government, community and individual level. After testing, it has to be followed by isolation, contact tracking, taking care of those found to be positive by checking for their oxygen levels etc,” she added.