Alarmed at the spike in Covid-19 cases each passing day, the Union Health Ministry on Tuesday exhorted the citizens to come forward to get themselves tested for the infection and warned that their irresponsible behaviour like failure to follow distancing norms and not using masks could lead to a damaging situation as far as the pandemic is concerned in India.
After breaching single-day records of highest Covid cases in the world going past 90,000, India on Tuesday registered 75,809 fresh cases in 24 hours, while marking the largest spike in deaths in a day with 1,133 new fatalities.
Fearing that States too were not serious about the pandemic, the Government also took exception that some of them were not conducting gold-standard reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests on symptomatic people who tested negative for the rapid-antigen test (RAT).
Addressing a press briefing, NITI Aayog member V K Paul, who also heads Covid-19 national task force, stressed on the importance of testing in containing the pandemic.
Highlighting repeated complaints from states that people are becoming lax in taking precautions against Covid-19, he said following public health measures like social distancing and wearing masks remains key to slowing the pandemic.
“People should not be afraid of getting tested. They should come forward to get themselves tested for COVID-19 if they have symptoms,” he said.
At a time when coronavirus cases are on the rise, Paul said there have been repeated complaints from states about people becoming lax in taking safety precautions.
Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan took note of the States failing to conduct the RTPCR tests. “There are many states where people testing negative for rapid-antigen test (RAT) are not subjected to RT-PCR. You need to catch that missing person. The people who are not caught are spreading the infection.”
“You can chase the virus only if you catch the missing person. This is both Ministry and ICMR guidelines that a person who is symptomatic negative in a rapid-antigen test should be compelled to RT-PCR. If 100 such people are left, they can spread it to a lot of people, and this is worrisome,” he added.