Doing more tests: Next challenge for Covid 19 in India
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COMMENTARY
Doing more tests: Next challenge for Covid 19 in India Manas Pratim Roy1
Received: 24 April 2020 / Accepted: 24 May 2020 Ó Indian Virological Society 2020
Abstract In response to Coronavirus 19 pandemic, countries are struggling to contain its spread and save precious human lives. Like others, India is also trying to enhance testing capacity to identify every case and break the chain of transmission. Due to several constrains like geographic distribution of the laboratories, social stigma, prevailing lockdown, people are not being able to seek medical help every time they need. In addition, the states are not doing laboratory tests in similar frequency. In future, doing extensive tests would emerge as a major strategy for stopping the progression of the pandemic.
Since the end of 2019, mankind has witnessed rapid unfolding of a pandemic, caused due to Coronavirus 19 (Covid 19). India, like other countries, is also facing the wrath of Covid 19 pandemic. By end of May, 2020, there have been 6.3 million cases globally, with 374,000 deaths. In response, the countries took unprecedented steps like closure of international borders, lock down and enforcement of social distancing. The basic aim was to prevent breakdown of fragile health system that is unable to counter such a viral onslaught. With reports that the virus is transmitting within community in US and Europe much before official recognition of such event raises the same question for India [7]. With early closure of boundaries and nation-wide lockdown, the epidemic is apparently having a sluggish growth in the country. It is supported by the fact that the number of total cases now takes more than 15 days for getting double [9]. & Manas Pratim Roy [email protected] 1
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, New Delhi, India
WHO, as a strategy to overcome the pandemic, suggested for extensive testing [10]. India, though following the path, is lagging much behind the European countries. For example, Italy is doing 64,664 tests/million population whereas India is doing 2876 tests/million [1]. It may be noted that Italy is also experiencing national lockdown across the country since 9th March, 2020. However, it is only extensive testing that helped to identify more than 233,000 cases till 1st June, 2020 [1]. Had India adopted similar rate of testing, by now, 88 million tests would have done which is in sharp contrast to the present figure of 3.97 million [4]. In a resource-poor country like India, detection of all cases might not be possible. As of now, there are 681 labs testing for Covid 19 [5]. At times, the testing labs are 200 km away from certain geographic points. With existing lockdown, how many symptomatic individuals would travel 200 km is a matter of further research. Only the serious cases, which constitute 20% of the total infected persons, would attempt to avail such diagnostic services, with no assurance for success. Add stigma and difficulty to arrange even the last rites of Covid 19 patients being reported to this consideration and
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