Chennai: Tamil Nadu on Thursday surpassed the ten lakh (one million) mark in RT-PCR tests conducted so far for the coronavirus COVID-19. This is being viewed as a commendable feat, given that Tamil Nadu is the first state in India to have done so.
The state had barely performed a total of 3,000 tests as on April 1. However, in the following months testing was immensely ramped up, thus enabling the state to reach the one million mark. In terms of COVID-19 testing facilities, from merely 17 labs at the start of April, there has been a five-fold increase and currently, 89 labs are functional.
As per the data from the state health bulletins, 47 of these testing labs are state government facilities while 42 of them are private ones.
Tamil Nadu Health Secretary Dr Radhakrishnan said that though the testing was slow at the start, the state eventually scaled up rapidly. “Initially it took a little time to get ICMR approvals for new labs, but we were keen on increasing both government and private labs. It was basically a focussed strategy to have a testing centre every 30 km in bigger areas. Based on what our Chief Minister had discussed with the health experts, we have been strictly going with RT-PCR(most-reliable) tests only and ramping up the numbers," he said.
In terms of the tests per million too, Tamil Nadu ranks far above the national average. As per state government figures that were released earlier in June, Tamil Nadu had tested 8,666 samples per million, whereas the national average stood at 4,657. Experts working in the field owe it to the dedication of the staff in testing labs. Microbiologists and lab technicians are said to be the unseen heroes of this battle, as their tedious work requires a lot of precision, involves high risk.
“All our testing labs are dependent on RT-PCR machines and most of these machines need to be imported, there are also delays in supply due to the logistical challenges. But in Tamil Nadu, we decided to set-up more labs using the RT-PCR machines that were already available in the educational, research institutions. Our government labs test about 80% of the total samples by working 24 hours a day, all through the week,” said Dr S Raju, Deputy Director, State Public Health Laboratory.
In recent weeks, Tamil Nadu has been consistently testing above 20,000 samples on a daily basis. On certain days there were over 33,000 samples tested. Officials say that nearly 80 per cent of the one million tests were done in government labs, with the remaining being done in private facilities.
“Such scaling up is possible because we have been getting sufficient testing kits from the US, South Korea and some even from India. In parallel, we are also placing orders for more RT-PCR machines, but we are meeting urgent requirements by getting the machines with the support of various departments and their research institutions. Some of them are Higher education department, animal husbandry, fisheries etc.,” Dr Raja added.
While the rapid ramp-up of test capability has been widely appreciated, experts also suggest few other additional measures that Tamil Nadu could follow in the coming times. “It is commendable that we have surpassed one million tests in a state that has an eight crore population, but in specific districts, testing needs to be increased. Chennai (within civic body limits) has a population of around one crore, but we have only around 10,000 tests per day. The testing in Chennai and its three adjoining districts of Kanchipuram, Tiruvallur and Chengalpattu, which have a combined population of over two crore must be scaled up even more,” said Healthcare Consultant Dr Sumanth C Raman.
Besides the scaling up of testing numbers, experts also point out towards broader testing among different groups of people. “States are testing people based on latest ICMR guidelines, but they could also go a step ahead and test the aged population, cancer patients, vulnerable groups, pregnant women etc. Such testing can be done across social strata and at random. For example, a pregnant lady or a cancer patient must not have much exposure to infection while at home. But if they test positive, it means that there are many cases in their locality. Random testing for such groups and it would reveal more cases. COVID-19 testing before admitting all senior citizens (for other ailments) and pregnant women in hospitals is also a good strategy,” said Dr K Kolandaiswamy, who retired recently as Tamil Nadu's Director of Public Health and Preventive medicine.
“From a few hundred daily tests in March and April, it is a tremendous growth that Tamil Nadu has shown in testing capability. But henceforth, the public must pay sincere attention to hand-washing(using soap) and mask-wearing, as that’s what reduces the spread and controls this pandemic” he added.
On Friday, Tamil Nadu recorded its highest-ever day increase of 3,645 cases, thus taking the total case count to 74,622. There are currently 32,305 active cases in the state and 957 people have so far succumbed to the deadly pandemic. Chennai has a bulk of the state’s cases and accounts for 49,690 cases, of which 20,136 are active.
