There are signs of COVID-19 cases stabilising in the Union Territory after the isolation of more patients was possible due to the increase in testing, District Collector cum Secretary Health, T. Arun has said.
“The positivity rate was around 35% some time in third week of August but in the last few days, we were able to bring it down to around 20%. This was made possible due to the increase in testing and other interventions in containment zones. But it is too early to conclude that the spread of coronavirus has been contained in the UT,” Mr. Arun told The Hindu .
Testing of people, which had crossed 2,000 per day on September 8, has touched almost 3,800 now. Data released by the Health Department on Saturday morning showed that as many as 3,792 people were tested in the last 24 hours. Of those tested on Saturday, 419 were positive. In the last six days alone around 16,000 people were tested for COVID- 19 in the Union Territory. So far, the Health Department has tested 95,919 people in UT, he added.
“Our aim is to cross 5,000 tests per day in a week so that more people could be isolated and thereby, we can contain the spread. The Government of India guideline prescribes 140 tests per million and we are far ahead of this in testing. Enough manpower has been recruited last week and testing kits procured,” Mr Arun said.
The Health Department would be soon placing orders for 50,000 more Rapid Antigen Testing kits and forming 15 more mobile teams so as to scale up testing in more areas, the Collector said.
