Health dept directs to increase Covid testing

KOLKATA: State Health department has issued instructions to all the district health officials to increase the number Covid sample tests on daily basis and to conduct a survey in the most affected areas where the infection rate is higher.

According to sources, senior health officials at Swasthya Bhawan directed some districts to double the number of Covid tests to identify those who have been infected with the virus. On an average basis, the State conducts around 22,000-27,000 tests per day currently. It has targeted to touch 50,000 tests each day. The district health officials have been urged to put in place adequate infrastructure to achieve the initial target. The private health establishments have also been instructed to increase the number of daily tests. According to health department sources around 1,03,091 Covid tests are done against one million population in Bengal. Around 6.40 percent people are found to be positive for Covid out of the total sample tested on an average basis. Following instructions from the Swasthya Bhawan, health officials in the districts are deploying ASHA workers to carry out house-to-house surveys to know if any family members have any flu-like symptoms.

As the infection rate is going up the number of patients getting admitted to various hospitals is also rising up. The occupancy of Covid beds in the state has gone up to 15.19 percent. Till a few days ago, the number remained below 10. The Health department in the last week directed all the private hospitals to increase Covid beds.

The government medical colleges across the state have been asked to open a dedicated isolated Covid ward. As per the government directives, all the government medical colleges and the district hospitals have to compulsorily treat Covid patients, besides others.

State Health department's figures say that in January this year, around 17,800 people were infected with Covid across Bengal. The number dropped at 5,000 in February whereas in March it again rose up to 11,900 in March. Health officials apprehend that the number may cross all the figures which were registered in the past couple of months. Only in the first four days of April, the tally of infected patients reached 6,700.

It may be mentioned here that the State government has laid great stress on vaccination.

The immunization process in the state has received a momentum with more number of Covid vaccination centers (CVCs) coming up.