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The day India Medical Association (IMA) claimed community transmission of COVID-19 across the country, Uttar Pradesh Health Minister Jai Pratap Singh ruled it out, saying that in UP every case was being traced and the administration had full details of the contacts of the infected person.
“There is a spike in the number of coronavirus cases across the country and this might have prompted the IMA to postulate about the community spread. But in UP, the number has gone up because the number of tests too have increased. In March we were carrying out around 200 tests per day but now over 56,000 tests are being carried out on a daily basis,” Singh told ‘The Pioneer’ here on Monday.
He said under the Government of India’s guidelines, UP had increased testing in the containment areas across the state.
“In he National Capital Region and other big cities like Gorakhpur, Prayagraj, Jhansi and Varanasi, we are carrying out antigen tests. Besides, we are also doing house-to-house survey. We have segregated patients according to their comorbid conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiac, kidney and cancer problems. We have also prepared a database of people having cough and cold,” he said.
“All symptomatic cases have been picked up and tested and therefore there is an increase in the number. It is wide across the state, particularly in big cities. It is negligible in the rural areas. With the increase in testing it is obvious that the number of infected persons will go up. It does not mean that there is community spread of this disease,” he said.
The minister ruled out the possibility of restricting the testing, saying that the government would further increase testing.
“We do testing of different levels like antigen test, testing through TrueNat and RT-PCR and even pool testing. Around 85 per cent of these cases are asymptomatic. The recovery of these patients is fast and they are released within a week’s time,” the minister said.
Singh said that the government had also roped in AYUSH doctors to attend to the COVID-19 patients. “The coronavirus positive numbers have gone up across the state but the situation is well under control,” the minister said.