COVID-19 Testing Rate In India Lower Than Other Nations: WHO Chief Scientist

Hyderabad: The Chief Scientist of World Health Organisation (WHO), Soumya Swaminathan said that India has a low testing rate compared to some countries that are successfully trying to curb it, reported NDTV.

In an interactive session through a video conference on Tuesday, she said that the lockdown was a temporary measure to contain the spread of coronavirus, the report added.

On India’s testing rate

“India as a whole, the testing rates are much lower compared to some of the countries, who have done well like Germany, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan. Even the United States is testing a huge number of people. So we need to have some benchmark and every public health department needs to have benchmarks on what is the rate of testing per lakh or per million, what is the test positivity rate,” NDTV quoted her as saying in a PTI report.

Without adequate number of tests, fighting the virus is like “fighting fire blindfolded,” she pointed out.

According to Swaminathan, the number of tests being conducted is not adequate if the COVID-19 test positivity rate is above five per cent, the report added.

On facilities in India

Governments need to constantly monitor the availability of beds, quarantine facilities, ICUs and oxygen supplies in district hospitals, she said.

“So there is a set of 8 to 10 indicators that the government needs to keep a close watch on. And you can ramp up or ramp down based on what you are seeing on the ground,” NDTV quoted her as saying.

On how the virus has and is likely to behave

The scientists’ community was still studying the body’s immune response to coronavirus and the next 12 months were crucial to put in place the public health and social measures. The virus has spread to every country in the world and “established community transmission,” the WHO official was quoted as saying.

“We know that lockdowns are temporary measures which reduce the spread because it prevents people from getting closer together and the idea of the lockdown is to buy time for the government to put in place the system needed to tackle the virus,” she was quoted as saying.

On the ongoing vaccine trials

The report quoted Swaminathan as saying that WHO has issued guidelines and if the efficacy rate of the vaccine is 70 percent, then it is considered to be a good one.

COVAX facility: By the end of 2021 it is aimed to deliver two billion doses of safe, effective vaccines that have passed regulatory approval and/or WHO prequalification, she said.