News Analysis India

Tag: TPR

  • Covid cases up, positivity highest since Feb last year  

    Express News Service

    NEW DELHI: India is showing a surge in Covid-19 cases, with the test positivity rate (TPR) — a vital marker in assessing the spread of an outbreak — touching 8.40% on April 16. It is the highest TPR, which indicates the percentage of people who are found to be infected by the virus from those who are being tested, since February 3, 2022, when the third wave driven by Omicron saw a surge in India.

    Apart from Delhi, the other states that reported high TPR on April 17 are Goa (15.38%), Rajasthan (15.69%), Haryana (14.28%), Uttarakhand (11.94%), Karnataka (8.92%), Chandigarh (8.47%) Tamil Nadu (8.66 %) and Himachal Pradesh (7.07%).

    Though Kerala is reporting the highest number of Covid-19 cases and deaths, it is not publicly sharing the number of Covid-19 tests and TPR. Sachin Taparia, Founder of LocalCircles, said: “In most cases, people are showing up at their workplaces or schools/colleges and using public transport despite having symptoms, spreading the infection, which wasn’t the case during the first three waves,” Taparia said.

    According to Dr Rajeev Jayadevan, co-chairman of the National Indian Medical Association (IMA) Covid-19 task force, TPR indicates how much spread is happening in the community. Citing an example, he said in some hospitals in Kerala, which is systematic in conducting Covid-19 tests, in early March, no positive cases were reported, but in mid-March, it went up to 10%. 

    However, by April, the number spiked to 40-42%. “Earlier, testing was systematic; now it is symptom-based. People are not taking Covid-19 tests as they consider it a waste of time and money and recovering at home, assuming they have Covid-19. This leads to gross underestimation of the amount of infection in the community,” Dr Jayadevan told this paper.

    NEW DELHI: India is showing a surge in Covid-19 cases, with the test positivity rate (TPR) — a vital marker in assessing the spread of an outbreak — touching 8.40% on April 16. It is the highest TPR, which indicates the percentage of people who are found to be infected by the virus from those who are being tested, since February 3, 2022, when the third wave driven by Omicron saw a surge in India.

    Apart from Delhi, the other states that reported high TPR on April 17 are Goa (15.38%), Rajasthan (15.69%), Haryana (14.28%), Uttarakhand (11.94%), Karnataka (8.92%), Chandigarh (8.47%) Tamil Nadu (8.66 %) and Himachal Pradesh (7.07%).

    Though Kerala is reporting the highest number of Covid-19 cases and deaths, it is not publicly sharing the number of Covid-19 tests and TPR. Sachin Taparia, Founder of LocalCircles, said: “In most cases, people are showing up at their workplaces or schools/colleges and using public transport despite having symptoms, spreading the infection, which wasn’t the case during the first three waves,” Taparia said.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    According to Dr Rajeev Jayadevan, co-chairman of the National Indian Medical Association (IMA) Covid-19 task force, TPR indicates how much spread is happening in the community. Citing an example, he said in some hospitals in Kerala, which is systematic in conducting Covid-19 tests, in early March, no positive cases were reported, but in mid-March, it went up to 10%. 

    However, by April, the number spiked to 40-42%. “Earlier, testing was systematic; now it is symptom-based. People are not taking Covid-19 tests as they consider it a waste of time and money and recovering at home, assuming they have Covid-19. This leads to gross underestimation of the amount of infection in 
    the community,” Dr Jayadevan told this paper.

  • Open primary schools first in districts reporting less than 5% Covid TPR, suggests ICMR chief

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: Top government officials on Tuesday suggested that primary schools in India can be opened first in districts reporting less than 5% Covid test positivity rate as kids can handle infection better.

    It was, however, also recommended that full vaccination of teachers and all support staff in schools should be ensured before schools can be reopened.

    Schools across India have been shut since March 2020 and while physical classes for classes 9 and above had begun last year briefly in a few states when the Covid19 cases started declining, they were again forced shut and shifted to online mode due to the devastating second wave of the pandemic.

    “We know clearly that children can handle viral infections much better than adults as they have fewer ACE receptor cells which the virus uses to invade the body,” said ICMR director general Balram Bhargava in a press briefing on Tuesday.

    Referring to the findings of the latest round of the national Covid serosurvey which showed that 57.2% kids in the 6–10-year age group and 66.7% of kids in the 10–17-year age group had antibodies against SARS CoV 2, Bhargava also said that antibody exposure in children is not very different from adults.

    He also pointed out that some Scandinavian countries didn’t shut their primary schools through any of the Covid waves so far.

    ALSO READ | Two-thirds of Indians have Covid antibodies, another 40 crore still vulnerable to infection: Government

    “Once India starts considering (opening of schools), it’ll be wise to open primary schools first before opening secondary schools. All the support staff whether it be school bus drivers, teachers & other staff in the school need to be vaccinated,” said.

    His remarks come on a day, AIIMS director Randeep Guleria too advocated the staggered reopening of schools.

    Meanwhile, speaking to a leading portal, Guleria suggested that schools can be reopened in places where Covid cases are falling and positivity rates are less than 5%. “I am a proponent of opening up schools in a staggered way, for districts that are seeing less virus circulation”

    Guleria, who is also a member of the country’s Covid19 task force on Covid said that districts with less positivity rate and cases should explore the option of bringing children back to schools on alternate days and look for other ways of a staggered reopening.

    He added that if surveillance hints at the spread of infection, classes can be immediately suspended.

    Last month, stressing that there has been a major loss in studies in the last one-and-half years on account of the Covid19 pandemic, Guleria said, “Schools have to be reopened and vaccination can play an important role in that.