Dreadful test positivity rate in state
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: June 22, 2021 -

FROM comorbid conditions cited as the primary reason for deaths of Covid-19 patients during the first wave to the combination of chronic illnesses and belated hospital admission being inferred for the unprecedented number of fatalities in the second wave, the state continues to see disturbing trend of both casualties and infections.

At the current rate of spread of the virus, there is no guarantee that the death toll in the state wouldn't cross more barriers as the rate of daily cases of infected people remain well above the national average.

Moreover, recent official confirmation of the highly transmissible Delta variant ofthe virus prevalent in the state suggests that the pandemic will be bringing more miseries to the people if more effective preventive measures are not put in place.

With the state recording single day test positivity rate of 11.73 per cent as on Sunday, there is strong possibility of the pandemic situation worsening in the next few days or weeks especially in view of the government authorities launching mass testing drive in Imphal East district, which has been the second-worst virus affected district in the state.

The fact that state's Covid-19 death toll has already crossed the 1000-mark and the cumulative number of positive cases is already past the 64,000-mark testifies that efforts to stop the virus have not been yielding the desired result.

Despite efforts to scale up the test rate at designated facilities, the test positive rate remaining above the 10 per cent implies that it's still not enough to capture all the infected people.

The prevailing situation is a grim reminder about inevitability of more infections pending fool-proof containment measures and intensification of the vaccination programme.

The high test positivity rate, which is the percentage of people with positive test results, also signifies that many more vectors remain undetected.

For a reminder, the World Health Organization considers anything above 5 per cent too high, and has been advising governments to vigorously implement the most effective preventive and containment measures until the positivity rates are below the warning level for at least two weeks.

The WHO has been advocating the governments to run enough tests so that a large number of infected people don't go undiagnosed.

It has also been cautioning that if only the sickest patients are tested, many people with milder disease or no symptoms at all may continue to unwittingly spread the disease.

As the slew of preventive measures being adopted since outbreak of the virulent disease has not been successful in taming the virus, the government of Manipur needs to either minutely review the situation with members of the committees of experts constituted in the aftermath of the second wave or simply acknowledge the proposal placed by the People's Task Force for Covid-19 for identifying the Covid variants found in the state through genome sequencing to help the health authorities efficiently mop up the virus.

As stated by the Task Force, the confirmation of Delta variant of the virus in 18 out of 20 samples tested in a Hyderabad laboratory can't be taken lightly considering its high rate of transmissibility and severity.

The government might have delayed in initiating genome sequencing of the virus variants due to technical constraints or simply out of ignorance, but the same lethargic approach needs to be abandoned if the situation is to be brought under control before further miseries are caused.