All districts to focus on testing and tracking Covid-19 patients

Pune

Following a spike in Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra, the state health department has directed all district administrations to focus on testing infected people and tracking their contacts.

Both private and government hospitals have been asked to test patients with covid-19 symptoms for the virus infection and samples of positive patients are to be sent for genome sequencing.

In the state, approximately 1,000 to 1,500 samples are tested daily for Covid-19, which is significantly lower than the number of tests conducted during previous Covid-19 waves, where 10,000 samples were tested on a daily basis.

The number of Covid-19 cases in the state appears to be lower, but the true situation cannot be predicted until the number of samples is increased, according to state health officials.

On Monday, a Covid-19 review meeting was held, presided over by State public health Secretary Nawin Sona Natesan, who has now directed all districts to focus on Covid-19 patient testing and tracking.

During the meeting for better Covid-19 management, district officials were instructed to make arrangements for adequate RT-PCR tests and medicines, to increase vaccination and administer booster doses, to send samples for genome sequencing, and to keep hospitals ready to handle a surge in cases.

To avoid missing any new cases, both private and public hospitals must test patients with covid-19 symptoms.

According to the state health department report, the state currently has 3,792 active Covid-19 cases. The city of Mumbai has the most cases (1,162), followed by Pune (781), and Thane (670).

According to the report, the state currently has a case fatality rate of 1.82% and a recovery rate of 98.13%.

Dr Bhagwan Pawar, health officer for the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), stated that the civic body has already increased the number of Covid-19 samples tested daily to around 450.

“We have been asked to be prepared and identify the cases and focus on the high-risk cases. The infected patients’ contacts will be traced through their family members rather than the general public. Any family member who has had contact with an infected person and has developed Covid-19 symptoms will be tested in accordance with government guidelines,” he stated.

Dr Pawar also stated that private hospitals will be asked to test patients with Covid-19 symptoms for virus infection.

“We are currently surveying Severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) patients, and the Influenza-like illness (ILI) patients survey will be included by the hospitals soon. The survey will be expanded in areas where cases have been reported,” he explained.

Dr Ramchandra Hankare, district health officer, stated that adequate arrangements have been made for Covid-19 management in rural Pune. However, the number of Covid-19 hospitalisations in rural areas remains low.