Number of daily Covid tests in Meerut insufficient: Experts

MEERUT Amid the Covid-19 surge, the state government has given a daily target of 5,500 tests to be conducted in the district for a population of over 34 lakhs

MEERUT Amid the Covid-19 surge, the state government has given a daily target of 5,500 tests to be conducted in the district for a population of over 34 lakhs.

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Medical experts opined that the number of tests fixed by the state government for the district was very small which should be increased to fight effectively with rising cases.

The district witnessed 299 positive cases of Covid 19 and two deaths on Tuesday and in the past 12 days, 1580 people have tested positive. Six died during treatment.

Medical experts insist on 3 T formula to contain the virus: Tests, Tracking and Treatment’. Dr Anil Nausran, a senior pathologist and former secretary of the Indian Medical Association ( IMA), Meerut unit, explained that testing, tracking and treatment should be done in a massive way to control the virus but unfortunately low number of tests were being carried out, so the actual condition of the pandemic could not be predicted and analysed.

Dr Nausran claimed that private labs were charging very high fees for Covid tests and health officials had turned a deaf ear to the issue. “I have filed an RTI to enquire about the fees fixed for private labs for Covid tests but have not received any information yet”, said Dr Nausran who insisted on setting up sample collection centres at all primary and community health centres and at various private hospitals for RT PCR tests, instead of leaving it in the hands of a few private and government labs.

District surveillance officer Dr Ashok Taliyan said that the health department had been given a target of conducting 3,500 Rapid Antigen and 2000 RT PCR tests in the district every day. He claimed to be conducting 6,000 to 7,000 tests daily, more than the target. Dr Taliyan said that they were following the guidelines of the central and state governments along with the orders of the high court.

Medical experts believe that 5,500 daily tests for a population of over 34 lakhs won’t do much in breaking the chain of the virus, especially when the number of positive cases is on the rise every day.

Dr Nausran questioned the methodology on the basis of which the state government fixed the number of tests to be conducted in a district. He said, “ A real situation of the medical emergency would come out only after conducting tests in large numbers”.

The health department bulletin claims that 7,312 samples were tested on Tuesday and 299 were found positive. The department has so far sent 1111483 samples for testing so far since the onset of Covid in the district in March last year. This shows that on average, approximately 3,000 samples were tested every day for a population of over 34 lakh in the district.