ICMR lauds Kerala's containment strategy for COVID-19
Dr Raman R Gangakhedkar, chief of Epidemiology andCommunicable Diseases at ICMR, saidIndia has evolved a strongCOVID-19 testing regime over the last three months.
He was responding to queries from mediapersons at anonline interaction, which was streamed live on Facebook byDepartment of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Kerala,here.
"Kerala is offering one of the best containmentstrategies and it is unparalleled. So we will continue torefer to Kerala Model as far as testing and containmentstrategies are concerned,"Gangakhedkar said.
He said thecountry was now in a position to ramp uptests up to 1.25 lakh a day in the government sector.
"We have expanded the criteria of testing as much aswe could. After starting from scratch three months back, thelast test we have done was 72,000 today. This is asignificantly high number. We are in a position to ramp uptesting up to 1.25 lakh a day," he added.
The interaction was an initiative by the state HealthDepartment to explain the technical aspects of the widely-debated COVID-19 testing.
A high-level team of the state led by Health MinisterK K Shailaja, Health Secretary Rajan Khobragade, Dr B Ekbal,who heads the expert panel that advises the government onprevention of the coronavirus and National Health Missionstate director, Dr Rathan U Kelkar among others participated.
When asked about the certain test results coming upwith false negative or positive, Ekbal said such results were"rare instances" of human error.
"We have conducted as many as over 35,000 tests inKerala. Only two or three went wrong. That kind of an averageexists even in missions that are less pressing," he said.
Health Secretary Khobragade said the tests were beingcarried out in accordance with certain protocol.
"Any minute variation in the process involving swabcollection, its transportation and the manner of reception atthe lab also may impact test," he said, and explained howefficiently the government facilitates the flow ofcommunication to the patient about the result of the test forCOVID-19.
Kerala on Saturday reported two positive cases ofcoronavirus taking the total number of cases in the state to499.
The state has till now cured 400 patients but lostthree.
There are 96 people under treatment in Kerala, as perthe latest medical report. RRT SS