The Centre wrote to the state on Tuesday about a spike in weekly Covid-19 caseload between November 26 and December 9, citing growing concern about the new variation Omicron. However, public health officials attribute it to an increase in daily testing as part of Omicron's surveillance programme.
On December 14, additional secretary Arti Ahuja wrote to additional chief secretary Dr Pradeep Vyas that 19 of the state's 36 districts reported an increase in weekly caseload between December 3 and 9, compared to the prior week, November 26 to December 2.
It was also noted that Mumbai has had a significant role in the new instances. 'It is crucial to note that the Mumbai district is reporting the number of new cases in the state on a weekly basis, with 1,403 new cases reported in the week ending December 9,' the letter states.
During the same time period, the weekly caseload in Mumbai increased by 8.4%, rising from 1,294 to 1,403.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) reasoned that the number of daily cases has grown as the daily testing has been increased to 45,000 due to an increase in Omicron cases.
'As the number of tests climbed, so did the workload.' However, the city's optimism rating, which sits at 0.5 percent, is still modest. So we don't have anything to worry about until this rate rises,' said Suresh Kakani, BMC's assistant commissioner.
In the 30 days leading up to December 10, the state reported 22,348 new cases and 781 deaths. During the same time period, the state was responsible for 7.8% of the country's monthly new cases and 6.1 percent of the country's monthly new deaths.
In his letter, Ahuja also mentioned a 700 percent increase in caseload in Gadchiroli, where instances went from one to eight in the same period. A similar increase has been observed in other districts, including Bhandara (400%), Hingoli (250%), Wardha (200%), and Parbhani (266%), among others.
The analysis, on the other hand, was met with dissatisfaction by state health officials. 'These areas have seen modest increases in cases, such as 3-20 in 7 days, that cannot be attributed to a 200-700 percent increase in caseload.' We are testing overseas fliers in addition to routine testing, which has contributed to the weekly new caseload increasing,' said one officer.
The state's five districts—Nandurbar, Aurangabad, Ahmednagar, Nashik, and Jalgaon—have seen a decline in weekly testing, according to the Centre. In the same period, weekly testing in Nandurbar fell by 35.61 percent, the largest reduction in the state. Aurangabad comes in second with 7.46 percent, followed by Ahmednagar with 6.93 percent, Nashik with 6.83 percent, and Jalgaon with 0.78 percent drops in testing between November 26 and December 2.
'It is also crucial to note that districts Buldhana (88), Nandurbar (121), and Yavatmal (130) are conducting average tests per million per day below the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation of 140, which is concerning,' the letter states.
The district health officers reasoned that the testing was hampered since the public was unable to travel to immunisation centres due to the unusually heavy rain last week. Furthermore, in other districts, such as Nandurbar, where there is one active Covid-19 case as of December 15, the number of close contacts and suspected patients is low, limiting daily testing.
'We detected two index Covid-19 patients on Tuesday and tested 25 of their close contacts. We're also evaluating suspected patients and those who come in with symptoms to fever clinics. We're striving to reach the daily testing objective, but we're falling behind due to a few active cases,' said Dr Mahendra Chavan, Nandurbar's district health officer.
You must be logged in to post a comment.