Covid Positivity Rate Is Spinning Out Of Control
By A Special Correspondent
First publised on 2021-04-19 07:08:07
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The sharp rise in the daily positivity rate is a clear pointer that the coronavirus is spreading at an alarming rate in the second wave. The rate has more than doubled from 8 percent to 16.7 percent in just 12 days. The national weekly positivity rate has increased from 3 percent to 13.5 percent in one month. While Chhattisgarh has a stupendous 30.3% infection rate, states like Maharashtra, Goa and Rajasthan have consistently reported positivity rate above 20 percent in the last month.
This is when India is not testing optimally in the given situation. While the spike in positivity rate has been the highest in the last 12 days, only between 11.73 lakh and 15.66 lakh tests were conducted all over the country. This is a very small figure given the size of the population. Since India has 29 states and 9 UTs, it means on an average, not even one lakh tests are being conducted daily in each of these regions, which is very distressing.
If the fight against the coronavirus has to be fought by testing, tracking and treating, as Prime Minister Modi has repeatedly said, we are faltering at the very first point. At least 50 lakh tests have to be carried out daily all over India to get the correct assessment of the gravity of the situation. One is sure that more than 500000 people are getting infected every day but official figures are still around 270000, which will put us behind in fighting the virus.
Apart from ramping up the infrastructure, making oxygen and remdesivir available, the government will also have to ramp up testing. For, each person who escapes detection and carries on with his or her daily activities will infect several others and this will go on exponentially till it goes out of hand. The need now is to test more and more people and trace the contacts of those found positive and isolate them to stop the virus from spreading. Simultaneously, vaccines have to be procured to ensure that at least 65 crore people are vaccinated in the next five months.
