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Govt must boost testing, tracing to handle Covid third wave: Congress
Congress party
The Congress party on Thursday demanded the State government to seriously implement the test, trace, and treatment strategy to control the third wave.
Hyderabad: The Congress party on Thursday demanded the State government to seriously implement the test, trace, and treatment strategy to control the third wave. "Covid-19 cases in Telangana have increased five times in the last one week. However, the government took no additional measures to handle the situation. The testing for Covid has remained low while no efforts are being made to trace contacts of infected persons," City Congress Committee (HCCC) Minorities department chairman Sameer Waliullah said in a statement.
Sameer pointed out that as against 280 positive cases reported on December 30, a total of 1,520 fresh cases were registered on January 5. While 37,926 samples were tested on December 30, 42,531 samples were tested on January 5. The figures clearly show a huge jump in the positivity rate which is also an indication of a third wave. He pointed out that on December 7 Health Minister T. Harish Rao had announced that the Covid tests would be increased to one lakh a day. However, for reasons best known to him and other authorities, the number of tests hovered around 35,000 a day. He said the government should increase the tests so as to identify all infected and provide them treatment.
The Congress leader said the government has been hushing up real statistics of Covid cases and deaths since the beginning. He said instead of presenting a false impression of gaining control over the Covid situation by hiding figures, the government should adopt a realistic approach. If the cases have increased by five times in the last one week. The authorities should've increased the testing by at least three times. Further, he said, less attention was being paid on contact tracing. "Instead of cross-checking whether or not a person is infected, with or without symptoms, the health authorities are apparently expecting people to self-report after they notice symptoms. Since a majority of infected persons could be asymptomatic, they unknowingly act as super-spreaders," he feared.
