For every 100 patients tested in Pune, 10 are positive; officials assure to increase testing

With 565 positive cases as of April 17 out of the 5,507 results which came from various laboratories, the city’s testing to sample proportion is 10.25%

For every hundred patients whose swab were tested in the city, more than 10 turned out to the positive for Covid-19 which takes the testing to sample proportion in Pune district to 10.25%.

Pune is the second hotspot in Maharashtra after Mumbai with experts calling for more testing. The district administration is now trying to get more labs on board, said officials. (Pratham Gokhale/HT Photo)

Pune is the second hotspot in Maharashtra after Mumbai with experts calling for more testing. The district administration is now trying to get more labs on board, said officials.

With 565 positive cases as of April 17 out of the 5,507 results which came from various laboratories, the city’s testing to sample proportion is 10.25%. As compared to Mumbai, this rate is close to 6%. According to the data from the BMC health department from February 3 to April 15 around 30,500 samples have been tested out of which 1,936 tested positive for the virus, which gives a proportion of sample to tested positive ratio of 6.1%.

Divisional commissioner Deepak Mhaisekar said, “We want to expand our testing capacity and so have already spoken to Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC) to bring on board private laboratories too. Within 2-3 days we will increase our testing capacity drastically. With regards to testing asymptomatic patients, we conduct the first test if the person had come in close contact with the Covid-19 patients and then quarantine the person. No further tests are taken if the person does not show symptoms.”

According to public health expert Dr Abhijit More who works with Jan Aarogya Abhiyan asymptomatic patients must be tested every 5th and 14th day as per the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines. “Since most cases are asymptomatic and if the person tests positive, the compliance of quarantine or isolation could be managed better.

Mumbai has started mass testing about 10 days ago which is why the number went high but in Pune the testing rate is too low. If the lockdown period is not used to test more people then what is the use of the lockdown?” he said.

He further states that the government can also collaborate with Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) and National Centre for Cell Sciences which are located in Pune or bring in more private laboratories because government infrastructure would fall short in today’s scenario. “Pool testing is another option which is approved by ICMR wherein multiple sample are mixed and if one of the sample is found negative then the can test each sample separately.”

With ICMR protocols calling for testing asymptomatic patients twice within the incubation periods, the district administration is simply isolating the patients after the first test if it is negative. Currently the city has only three government labs which test samples, including NIV which gets sample testing requests from across the country and sometimes from other counties, Sassoon hospital which manages tests from Satara and also AFMC which mainly accepts samples from Nashik.

Dr TP Lahane, who heads Directorate of Medical Education and Research, which also controls Sassoon hospital said, “BJ Medical College tests samples of only those patients who come to Sassoon directly. We are mainly testing samples from Satara, Nashik and Karad and we have tested 1,500 tests till date from 21 March. Pune is mainly managed from NIV and the follow of testing of Covid-19 first contacts and high risk contacts is done by the corporation and the patient could be sent to Sassoon or Naidu.”

He further added that the testing capacity which is currently 120-150 has been increased to 200 daily as we will soon start using the automated RNA extraction machine.

At AFMC around 300 samples from Pune have been tested, around 1,000 from Ahmednagar and Nashik, according to AFMC spokesperson.

According to the data from district health office as of April 17, 7 pm

5,703 samples sent to government labs including National Institute of Virology (NIV)

Pune district

5,507 results have come

565 positive cases

This brings the testing to positive proportion to 10.25 per cent compared to 6.1 per cent in Mumbai

ICMR Protocols for testing

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) strategy for Covid19 testing dated April 9, 2020 states that

· All symptomatic individuals who have undertaken international travel in the last 14 days

· All symptomatic contacts of laboratory confirmed cases

· All symptomatic health care workers

· All patients with severe acute respiratory illness (fever and cough and/or shortness of breath)

· Asymptomatic direct and high-risk contacts of a confirmed case should be tested once between day 5 and day 14 of coming in his/her contact

In hotspots/cluster (as per Ministry of Health and Family Welfare) and in large migration gatherings/ evacuees centres

All symptomatic ILI (fever, cough, sore throat, runny nose)

Within 7 days of illness – rRT-PCR (Real-Time Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction )

After 7 days of illness – Antibody test (If negative, confirmed by rRT-PCR)

Government labs testing samples in Pune

· National Institute of Virology, Pune

· Armed Forces Medical College, Pune

· BJ Medical College, Pune

Private labs approved by ICMR

· AG Diagnostics Pvt Ltd

· Sahyadri Specialty Labs

· Ruby Hall Clinic

· Metropolis Healthcare Limited