move comes as India’s next step after riskbased screening, that is checking
those who have travelled to countries with high prevalence of the disease, or
identifying people who have encountered those who are potentially infected.
MUMBAI: About
30 influenza testing sites run by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)
will soon start testing for Covid-19 as well, a move that experts termed a
starting point for expanding tracking of potentially infected people and
containing the spread of the disease. The move comes as India’s next step after
riskbased screening, that is checking those who have travelled to countries
with high prevalence of the disease, or identifying people who have
encountered those who are potentially infected.
Experts said
since symptoms of influenza and Covid-19 overlap and it is possible that health
systems might miss the prevalence of the disease, ignoring it as influenza,
using the influenza surveillance to also test for coronavirus is a “reassuring
exercise”.
“Now if you get into your influenza testing and
you also test for SARS Coronavirus 2 and then you don’t find it, you can be
reassured that there is not something that is being missed. It is a good
reassurance.
This is the right thing to do, and they are heading into an
absolutely right direction,” said Gagandeep Kang, executive director,
Translational Health Science and Technology Institute, India.
South Korea has done 3,800 tests per million people, the highest proportion so far, according
to the Oxford University-based research site Our World in Data (OWID).
