Testing at 9 Maharashtra districts below WHO norm: Centre

Pune: The Union health ministry has directed nine districts in Maharashtra to scale up daily average Covid testing, which has gone below the WHO norm of 140 tests a day per million population.
For the week ending November 22, Akola, Amravati, Buldhana, Dhule, Gondia, Hingoli, Nandurbar, Washim and Yavatmal have been listed as conducting below-norm tests.
Citing the trend as a cause for concern, Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Tuesday wrote to Maharashtra’s additional chief secretary, Dr Pradeep Vyas, and told him to ensure scaled-up testing in the state.
Dr Vyas told TOI that the situation in Maharashtra was under control. “We are vigilant; 14 districts in Maharashtra have a weekly positivity rate (WPR) less than 0.5%. The state’s WPR is 1%. Maharashtra has always been conducting the maximum tests in the country. I have told all districts to ramp up testing,” he said.
Health officials said the nine districts did not have adequate facilities. “The districts need to improve testing facilities and test and track ‘super-spreaders’,” an official said.
The Centre in its letter stated that Maharashtra reported 97,502 average tests a day as of the week ending November 22 -- a stark contrast to a high of 2.68 lakh average daily tests in the May 17-23 week. “A decrease in testing will undermine the actual infection spread,” Bhushan said in the letter.
Though the Centre has taken note of the decline in daily new cases to about 10,000, it also observed a decline in weekly testing rates. The letter stated, “In the absence of sustained levels of testing, it is difficult to determine the actual level of infection spread in a geography. A majority of the countries are witnessing multiple surges in Covid cases. A few developed countries are facing the fourth and fifth waves of the pandemic despite high levels of vaccination. There is a need for continuous vigil.”