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Even as cases surge, testing brought down by Pune dist admin
Pune: Even as Pune reports the most number of cases in the state and currently has the most active cases in Maharashtra, the district administration has brought down the number of tests
Pune: Even as Pune reports the most number of cases in the state and currently has the most active cases in Maharashtra, the district administration has brought down the number of tests.
While Sunday is an exception as most labs are shut or working with limited capacity, the fall in the number of tests continued on Tuesday when most people would step out to test.
As the number of tests is brought down, the positivity rate has gone higher. On Tuesday, the positivity rate was at 28.90% which is higher than what the district reported in September last year at around 23% during the peak of the first wave, according to the data provided by the district health office.
On Tuesday, the number of tests conducted in the district was less than 20,000 even as more than 5,700 new cases were reported which took the positivity rate to approximately 29% for the day. Civic and district officials said that this is because of the weekend impact.
Dr Sanjeev Wavare, assistant health officer said, “We sometimes get the results of Saturday and Sunday in two days and so the number reflected in the daily test report is that of the pending reports which have been released on Tuesday.”
District health officer Dr Bhagwan Pawar said that the number of tests reflected in the daily reports include the samples collected and test reports for the samples collected on Sunday.
The increasing positivity rate has been a matter of concern for the administration as more cases means more load on the health infrastructure. However, officials claim that despite the increasing positivity rate, Pune is testing highest number of samples per million.
As per the district health office, Pune tests 1.43 lakh tests per million which in Maharashtra is about 71,971 and 88,936 tests per million in India.
As per a latest report from Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics (INSACOG), grouping on ten national laboratories, it was found that a double mutation found in the virus that causes coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in Maharashtra is of concern as these mutations have not been yet catalogued, announced the health ministry on Wednesday.
The report stated, “The analysis of samples from Maharashtra has revealed that compared to December 2020, there has been an increase in the fraction of samples with the E484Q and L452R mutations. Such mutations confer immune escape and increased infectivity. These mutations have been found in about 15%-20% of samples and do not match any previously catalogued variants of concern (VOCs), These have been categorised as VOCs but require the same epidemiological and public health response of ‘increased testing, comprehensive tracking of close contacts, prompt isolation of positive cases and contacts as well as treatment as per National Treatment Protocol’ by the states and Union territories.”
Drop in test count
Date Cases Tests Positivity rate
March 19 5,065 200,56 25.25%
March 20 5,473 234,83 23.30%
March 21 5,408 21,112 25.61%
March 22 4,321 21,616 19.98%
March 23 5,722 19,796 28.90%
*Data provided by district health office
