State asks dist officials not to slow down testing as cases dip

kolkata: Even if the number of daily Covid infected cases has gone down significantly in Bengal, the Health department has asked its officials in the districts not to slow down the testing process. Health department is not ready to lower its guard and is trying to keep all infrastructures ready in case there is any surge in the future.

A senior official of the Health department said the positivity rate in Bengal consistently remains below 1 per cent and the discharge rate is much higher compared to the number of daily infected cases.

Due to large scale infection, people have also started developing herd immunity. Mass scale vaccination has also helped people from getting severe infections.

Despite the improvement of the situation, people must be aware and follow the Covid norms as much as possible. Health experts also pointed out that the delta variant still prevails in the state. In terms of damage it causes, Delta is more devastating than Omicron.

Many people during the third wave got infected with Omicron but did not realise that.

It is mainly because they were asymptomatic. Many of the omicron infected patients had mild symptoms unlike those who were infected with Delta.

In Bengal, there are around 2.66 lakh tests conducted per million population. On an average around 30-40 thousands tests are performed across Bengal on a daily basis. There are around 162 testing laboratories in the state.

Over 2.40 crore samples have already been tested in the state so far out of which around 1.10 crore rapid antigen tests have been done.

A recent survey conducted by the Health department in collaboration with MR Bangur Hospital suggested that around 75 per cent of the patients were infected with Omicron during the third wave while around 25 per cent were still suffering from the Delta variant. The survey will be carried out in phases.

The preliminary data collected during study hinted that the Omicron variant has been milder from previous delta variant. State health department conducted a survey to ascertain whether the Covid infected patients are mostly Omicron positives or Delta.

Hence, the Health department urged the health officials in the districts to continue the tests with the same spirit as it was done in the past.