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More positive cases emerge as testing is stepped up in Pune district, say officials
Tests have increased from 200 in first week of April to 889 on April 23, according to district officials
From 200 tests in the first week of April to 889 tests as of Thursday, the Pune district administration has attributed the high rise in the number of positive cases to more testing of suspected people in high risk areas.
Currently Pune’s testing rate stands at 979 tests per million for the district. The city saw 104 positive cases on Thursday, the highest in one day.
According to the district health office, 189 tests were done in 24 hours as of April 9. The testing rate in the city went up as the number of positive cases went up with more contact tracing. As of April 24, 889 tests were done in 24 hours. As of Thursday, a total of 9,204 tests were done in the district since the outbreak of the virus.
About the 104 positive cases detected on a single day, District collector Naval Kishore Ram said that more cases only means that more testing is going on and there is no need to panic. He said there was a rise in the number of women being infected of Covid-19 which is why people must take more care.
“Do not venture out of the house repeatedly even for essential items, stock them. Social distancing should be followed and any symptoms of flu--be it mild or negligible-- should be reported immediately to the flu clinics set by the civic body,” he said.
With pool testing approved for the state, the test rate in the state is expected to go higher. State health minister Rajesh Tope tweeted on Friday that the central health ministry has approved pool testing for the state.
The Indian council of Medical Research’s (ICMR) advisory on feasibility of using pooled samples for molecular testing of Covid-19 states that ‘a pooled testing algorithm involves the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) screening of a specimen pool comprising multiple individual patient specimens, followed by individual testing (pool deconvolution) only if a pool screens positive. As all individual samples in a negative pool are regarded as negative, it results in substantial cost savings when a large proportion of pools tests negative.’
The advisory suggests that pooling of more than five samples is not recommended to avoid the effect of dilution leading to false negatives, especially in areas or population with positivity rates of more than 5% for Covid-19, considering higher possibility of missing positive samples with low viral load, except in research mode.
Currently testing labs in Pune
Government labs testing samples in Pune
· National Institute of Virology, Pune
· Armed Forces Medical College, Pune
· BJ Medical College, Pune
National AIDS Research Institute, Pune
National Centre for Cell Sciences, Pune
Private labs approved by ICMR
· A.G. Diagnostics Pvt Ltd
· Sahyadri Speciality Labs
· Ruby Hall Clinic
· Metropolis Healthcare Limited
Aditya Birla Memorial Hospital
Genepath Diagnostics India Pvt Ltd
