Underlining the importance of adequate testing for COVID-19, World Health organistation chief scientist Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, said that India’s testing rate is low, compared to other countries which have done well in combating the pandemic.
“India, as a whole, has a low testing rate compared to some of the countries which have done well like Germany, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and even the US,” she said while speaking on ‘The vaccine race, balancing since and urgency’ organised by the Telangana government.
She said the WHO had been repeatedly emphasising that testing is extremely important. “Unless we do testing adequately, we don’t know where the virus is. If you are not testing, you are fighting a fire blindfolded. We have to test, test and test.”
Participating via video-conferencing, she said that every public health department needs to have benchmarks like what is the test rate per million and what is the test positivity rate. “The moment your test positivity rate is above 5 percent, you know that you are not testing adequately,” she said.
Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan was discharged from hospital this morning after recovering from the disease. He had been admitted to Chirayu Hospital in Bhopal after he tested positive for the disease on July 25.
He has reportedly been advised to remain at home for another seven days, during which his health will be monitored.
Former Maharashtra chief minister and senior Congress leader Shivajirao Patil Nilangekar passed away early on Wednesday morning. The 91-year-old had recently recovered from the novel coronavirus, his family said.
In other news, Anil Rathod, a five-time former MLA of the Shiv Sena from Ahmednagar also died on Wednesday. He had tested positive for Covid-19.
The global coronavirus cases rose to 18,466,594, with as many as 699,134 fatalities. At least 11,058,317 people have recovered from the disease so far, data by John Hopkins showed.
