TAC recommends daily tests in Karnataka to be limited to 75,000 under revised strategy

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February 16, 2022

KEY STORY

In view of a steady decline in the incidence of COVID-19 cases and Test Positivity Rate (TPR), both in districts and the capital, the COVID-19 Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) has recommended that Karnataka can reduce its testing target to 75,000 from the current daily tests of around 1.2 lakh. After deliberations on this issue at its 155th meeting on Sunday, the TAC said while 25,000 tests should be conducted in Bengaluru daily, the remaining 50,000 should be done in the rest of the State.
“Indian Council of Medical Research’s (ICMR) guidelines on purposive testing strategy of COVID-19 issued on January 10, 2022 should be duly followed and only symptomatic persons should be tested,” stated the TAC’s report.
In mid-January, when the pandemic was raging like wildfire across the country, the TAC advised the State to go slow on testing. It had recommended that random testing should be stopped and the focus should only be on symptomatic persons. For some time (when the transmission was very high after January 18), Karnataka was doing over 2 lakh tests and the daily target was reduced following the TAC’s recommendation.

Genome sequencing
Besides, the TAC has said that all samples from hospitalised patients, particularly from high dependency units (HDU) and ICUs apart from cluster outbreaks, should be sent for genomic sequencing without fail.
TAC member V. Ravi, who is also the nodal officer for genomic confirmation of SARS-CoV-2 in Karnataka, said it is important to genome sequence samples of all hospitalised patients to understand the cause and variant behind the disease severity in them. “This is also mandated by Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG),” he said.

“At this juncture when the third wave is waning, it would be vital to take up facility-based surveillance as there is no point in testing asymptomatic contacts of positive individuals in the community,” he explained.

No test before surgeries
Taking a cue from AIIMS, New Delhi, and PGIMER, Chandigarh, where screening of asymptomatic patients for COVID-19 before admission, surgeries, procedures, and investigations were stopped from February 10, the State’s TAC has recommended that a similar system should be put in place in both government and private hospitals in Karnataka too.

“The hospital infection control committee (HICC) should play a dynamic and proactive role in this regard. However, testing, isolation, and treatment of symptomatic patients should be continued as per existing guidelines,” the report stated.
TAC sources said non-COVID-19 patients have been badly hit owing to the non-availability of efficient services in the hospitals ever since the pandemic hit the State in March 2020.

Arundathi Chandrashekar, State Mission Director, National Health Mission (NHM), said a circular on the revised testing targets and no requirement of COVID-19 test before surgeries will be issued in a day or two.