Few coronavirus tests in rural hinterland

Reduced tests will lull people into a false sense of security: ex-official

On April 10, as many as 2,932 tests were conducted in Adilabad district to detect the spread of SARS-CoV2 virus and 92 persons tested positive. A month later, on May 9, the number of tests conducted were 770 and 47 were positive. The number of tests fell about four times but the positive cases didn’t even get halved. On April 9, 5,493 COVID-19 tests were conducted in Nizamabad and 202 were positive. On May 10, the number of tests dipped to 1,788 with 78 positive reports. In Warangal Rural, even after the number of the tests were reduced, the positive cases have not shown a dip. On April 9, there were 1,302 tests in the district with 19 positive cases. The number of tests were cut to 416 (nearly 1/3) on May 9 but the positive cases were 56 (nearly three times). While dip in testing on Sundays has been the norm in Telangana since the beginning of the pandemic, there has been a steady drop in the number of tests between April 10 and now. “The number of tests have been played around even during the first wave of the pandemic. Even if the tests are reduced, the positivity rate is the key. A higher number of tests will give us a clear picture of the infections in society and help us fight it,” says K. Sujatha Rao, former union Health Secretary.