Amid spike in COVID 19 cases, three districts of Kashmir division – Anantnag, Baramulla and Kupwara – have reported the minimum number of tests per million population done in the last two weeks.
As per an official document, district Anantnag has done a minimum number of tests (13550) per million souls during the last two weeks, followed by district Baramulla (18010) and Kupwara (18909).
As per the analysis report of the Divisional administration, Kulgam has the highest Case Fatality Rate (1.87 percent) followed by Baramulla (1.85 percent) and Anantnag (1.83 percent).
Case Fatality Rate, also called case fatality risk or case fatality ratio, is the proportion of people who die from COVID among all individuals diagnosed with the disease over a certain period of time.
A senior health department official informed that recently these issues were deliberated in a review meeting chaired by Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, PK Pole, who took serious note of the lesser number of tests being done in three districts and also the highest CFR in Kulgam.
“Divisional administration has taken a serious note of the poor performance and directed the authorities to ramp up the testing pace.”
As per the minutes of the meeting chaired by the Divisional Commissioner, it was stressed upon all districts to enhance the COVID-19 testing and adhere to testing targets as already communicated by Divisional COVID control room, besides complying the fundamental principle of 1500 tests per million population per day with 50 percent of total tests through RT-PCR.
“Administration has stressed that patients who have signs of COVID but their report comes out negative on RAT must undergo RT-PCR. The health department has been directed that out of the total tests they conducted during a day, 50 percent of them must be RT-PCR,” said a health department official adding that there have been many instances when RAT tested came out negative but later patient was tested positive through RT-PCR.
He said that RT-PCR is mandated only on those patients who have symptoms of COVID.
The Div Com expressed his displeasure over the fact that the majority of active positive cases are outside containment zones and even 100 percent in some areas. He directed the districts to notify new containment zones and also directed to ensure 100 percent testing of all eligible.