State health dept prod to 10 districts on testing

Pune: The state public health department has directed 10 districts to ramp up the Covid-19 testing infrastructure ahead of the possible third wave because they were conducting fewer tests than the state average.
In a detailed note issued on September 14, the state’s additional chief secretary, health, Dr Pradeep Vyas, directed the collectors of Akola, Buldhana, Dhule, Hingoli, Nanded, Nandurbar, Osmanabad, Palghar, Parbhani and Yavatmal to ramp up the testing infrastructure.He said these 10 districts were registering less than 2.5 lakh tests per 10 lakh population, while the state’s average was 4.34 lakh for every 10-lakh population.
“The second wave is slowly and steadily waning and the weekly positivity rate (WPR) for the state is 2.6%. But with many western countries reporting third wave and the Centre’s warning about it, we need to be cautious,” stated the letter of Dr Vyas addressed to all the collectors and the commissioners.
It stated, “There has been a 20% dip in testing now from the earlier period and this is a cause of worry.”
The note stated that Pune, Satara, Sanlgi, Nashik, Palghar, Osmanabad and Sindhudurg districts also needed to increase testing because their WPR was more than the state’s average of 2.6%.
‘The health officials stressed on increased surveillance in Pune, Ahmednagar and Solapur, especially in the rural areas.
Dr Vyas directed the district collectors to take strict action against the laboratories uploading the Covid test reports late.
The reports would have to be updated on the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)’s portal within 24 hours, stated the directive.
The Pune district authorities on Tuesday directed the officials in rural areas to ramp up testing to 2,500 per day in each taluka before the Ganapati immersion day because of movement of large number of people.