Nagaland government directs health officials to ramp up Covid-19 testing

Dimapur, July 15 (EMN): Concerned over low testing in Nagaland amid fear of a possible third wave, the department of Health and Family Welfare has directed the chief medical officers and medical superintendents of all districts to ensure that the Covid-19 testing target assigned to the district is achieved.

The department informed that ‘Covid-19 testing in Nagaland is lowest in the country at 1,12,330 per million, compared to national average of 3,10,790 per million’.

“The positivity rate will be high if the number of positive tests is too high, or if the number of total tests is too low. A higher percent positive suggests higher transmission and that there are likely more people with coronavirus in the community who haven’t been tested yet. The positivity rate is presently at around 7% in the state with wide inter-district variations,” read the order issued on Thursday.

It stated that testing is not only a vital epidemiological tool but also help people determine if they are infected or not.

“Only through testing, cases including those who have no symptoms can be detected, isolated and treated. Further, with the details of contacts provided by the confirmed cases, persons who have come in contact with the confirmed case can be traced, tested, isolated and treated. Thus breaking the chain of transmission and prevents the virus from replication and mutation,” it stated.

The Health department stated that as directed by the High Powered Committee on Covid-19, ‘directions and guideline on measures to upscale up Covid-19 testing has been developed to guide and facilitate the chief medical officer, medical superintendent and district task force to ramp up testing’.