Dists asked to increase daily Covid tests in affected pockets

kolkata: State Health department has asked the district health officials to increase the number of daily Covid tests in those pockets where Covid cases are on the rise. Around 80 per cent of the infected patients are found to be asymptomatic which has also become a concern for the department.

Health department has also urged the Chief Medical Officers of health (CMoH) in various districts to ensure that there is no delay in testing in the affected areas as this could complicate the situation further. Around 30,000-40,000 samples are tested daily on an average basis in Bengal. Nearly 2 crore samples have so far been tested across the state.

According to sources, the CMoHs of various districts have been asked to identify the asymptomatic patients. The district health officials were also urged to conduct a door-to-door survey in the affected pockets so that the suspected patients can be segregated and tests can be done on them. Health workers from the local civic bodies and the ASHA workers can be utilized for carrying out the survey, the health department has suggested. It may be mentioned here that various civic bodies in the districts have already deployed ASHA workers for conducting dengue surveys.

As the majority of the infected patients are asymptomatic they do not even undergo Covid tests, health experts have pointed out. Many of these patients have comorbidity issues. Late detection of Covid cases particularly among the comorbid patients can be fatal, warned health experts. The fatality rate in Bengal has been around 1.20 percent for a long time. It was also learnt from the sources that there have been instances where asymptomatic people have infected comorbid patients. A senior health official in the state said that due to Covid vaccination, there has been a drop in the overall critical patients. As the state will continue to cover more people under immunization drive the fatality rate will further go down. The Bengal government has already administered over 8.08 crore people in the state.

"Those who have comorbidities along with Covid must be admitted to the hospital if their health condition deteriorates. The fatality rate has been higher among the comorbid patients and hence such patients must be detected early," an official said.