New Delhi: As many as 310 districts across India have been reporting a higher COVIDE-19 positivity rate against a national average of 21 per cent.
Informing this in New Delhi on Tuesday, the director-general of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Dr Balram Bhargava said that 310 districts out of a total of 734 districts are reporting a 42 per cent positivity rate.
“In such a situation where we are witnessing a high increase in cases, early testing, isolation and home-based care are key to control transmission,” said Dr Bhargava while elaborating the strategy of testing during the second wave of the pandemic.
Districts like Bengaluru urban, Chennai, Dehradun, Jaipur, Satara, Khordha among others have been witnessing a high percentage of COVID positivity rate.
He said that India is conducting 16 lakh RT-PCR tests per day at present and 17 lakh RAT tests in 2,520 testing laboratories.
“On April 30 India conducted 19,45,299 tests which is highest ever in the world,” said Dr Bhargava while addressing a press conference on the management and action taken against the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The country is conducting 16-20 lakhs RT-PCR and RAT tests from April-May per day.
“On May 5, 19,23,131 tests have been conducted and on May 7, 30 crore tests have been conducted,” added Dr Bhargava.
Asserting that the second wave is affecting mostly the tier II and III cities, DR Bhargava said that authorities in rural areas have been asked to increase rapid antigen tests.
“In large and urban cities RT-PCR tests are still the gold standard tests,” Dr Bhargava said.
He said that ICMR is also exploring home-based testing solutions. Looking into the severity of the second wave of the pandemic, Dr Bhargava said, real-time RT-PCR, RAT approved by reputed global agencies have been exempted from validation in India.
“Agencies like USFDA, European CE/IVD Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Korea, Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA), Japan among others have been accorded marketing permission by DCGI on the basis of existing approvals,” he said.
Dr Bhargava informed that the RT-PCR test must not be repeated in individuals who tested positive once either by RAT or RT PCR.
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“No testing required for recovered individuals at the time of discharge from the hospital. There is no need for an RT-PCR test for healthy individuals undertaking inter-state domestic travel. At the same time, non-essential travel and interstate travel of symptomatic individuals should be essentially avoided. All asymptomatic individuals undertaking essential travel must follow COVID appropriate behaviour,” said Dr Bhargava.
Meanwhile, talking about the availability of oxygen across India, Piyush Goyal, the additional secretary in the Union Home Ministry said that oxygen production has been increased from 5,700 MT per day in August last year to 9,000+ MT per day in May this year.
Giving details on the import of oxygen, Goyal said that 5,805 MT has been imported till date.
He said that from UAE 3440 MT, 1,505 MT from Kuwait, 600 MT from France, 200 MT from Singapore and 60 MT from Bahrain have been imported till date.
“Keeping in mind that availability of skilled drivers is a major challenge to transport the oxygen tankers across India, as many as 500 additional drivers are being trained & 2000 drivers will be trained soon,” said Goyal.
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