HYDERABAD: A day after World Health Organization (WHO) chief scientist Sowmya Swaminathan raised the red flag on low testing in the country, a look at Telangana’s testing capacity and pattern reveals exactly this with several loopholes right from not according permission to private hospitals to less number of hours for testing a day.
The state government claims it has achieved the WHO benchmark (140 tests per million population per day) by conducting 5,600 tests per day, but getting a test done on time is still a constraint for many in the state. Testing centres in the suburbs of the city and districts were being shut by afternoon, citing reasons like details needing to be updated on state portal. The number of testing hours was also less with a bandwidth of four to five hours. On weekends, no tests were being conducted, making people anxious.
Though states like Rajasthan have abandoned antigen testing as its efficacy was only 80% and ICMR recommended a follow up with RT-PCR test if antigen test was negative, Telanagana is not considering any of these recommendations. The number of tests has increased in the past month, however, as RT-PCR tests were only 4,000 a day, while the rest were antigen. There is no follow-up for antigen-negatives in the state. “A majority of Covid-19 patients have been found to be asymptomatic. If such people throw up a negative result with an antigen kit and they are not followed up with RT-PCR test, it will be a huge problem,” sources said
The virus has now spread to all districts, but testing in the hinterland is yet to be improved. One of the main problems is lack of RT-PCR testing facilities, both in government and private hospitals. Hospitals have no option but to send samples to labs in Greater Hyderabad. “With labs in Hyderabad already overburdened, they are not in a position to take up more samples for RT-PCR, leading to delays in identifying patients,” Telanagana Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association president Dr Ashok Reddy said.
The state government has allowed private labs to carry out antigen-antibody and rapid antigen tests for private hospitals recently.
Courtesy Times Of India
