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Mamata Banerjee govt plans ramping up Covid-19 testing
The step is a part of the state government’s 11-point containment and treatment strategy for high-risk spots announced on Monday.
Amid allegations that not enough tests are being conducted to detect Covid-19 patients in West Bengal and the number of infections increasing steadily everyday, chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s government has finally decided to expand testing to include even asymptomatic people, or those showing no symptoms of the virus
“Swab samples {to} be taken for all symptomatic contacts, and all asymptomatic direct and high-risk contacts of a confirmed case as per Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines and in clusters and quarantine centres, as deemed fit by the local administration,” said a directive issued by the state government.
The step is a part of the state government’s 11-point containment and treatment strategy for high-risk spots announced on Monday. Only symptomatic patients were to be tested under the strategy, which was amended on Thursday to include even asymptomatic people who may be carrying the virus.
“This is a huge step taken by the state government. We doctors have been banging our head against the wall for this for the last 10 days. It is because a lockdown and policing alone cannot bring desired results. We need to ramp up our tests. We need to go for random sampling. Tests, tests and more tests ae the need of the hour because we need to identify asymptomatic carriers and confine them,” said Kunal Sarkar, a cardiologist.
Around 12,200 people are now under observation in 582 institutional quarantine centres run by the state. They are likely to be tested, said a top official at the state health department.
“Earlier the ICMR had suggested that only symptomatic patients need to be tested. Now with ICMR coming up with new guidelines, we have also issued fresh guidelines. The state has also placed requisition for 50,000 rapid antibody testing kits. We will start the rapid test as soon as the kits arrive,” the official added.
West Bengal’s Trinamool Congress government has been drawing flak for allegedly not conducting enough tests.Only 3,811 tests have been conducted in Bengal, with a population of around 100 million, compared to 56,673 tests in Maharashtra, 21,384 in Uttar Pradesh and 17,650 in Madhya Pradesh.
Till date, at least 205 persons have tested positive for the virus in Bengal out of whom 10 have died. Allegations have surfaced that a few other patients who died Covid-19 hadn’t been included in the toll; the state government says that they had comorbid conditions that may have been responsible for their deaths. The state has set up a panel of doctors to look into such deaths before declaring whether they died of Covid-19 or other ailments.
The latest directive, expanding testing to asymptomatic people, didn’t silence critics. the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alleged that t was another attempt to suppress numbers.
“Health minister Mamata Banerjee continues assault on Doctor’s rights, proscribes them from prescribing Covid tests! How is it that a doctor treating a Covid patient can neither decide on the test nor write reasons for death but local admin or some random committee can?” tweeted Amit Malviya, head of the BJP’s information technology cell.
The health department offered no immediate clarification. Repeated calls and messages to top officials in the department elicited no response .
The Union government has identified Kolkata and Howrah as red zones – where the number of cases could easily double within four days. The state administration has started a house-to-house survey in high-risk containment areas to trace Covid-19 suspects who need to be quarantined.
