Govt says percentage of asymptomatic people testing +ve not very high

Sushmi.Dey@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:20.04.2020

The health ministry on Sunday said the percentage of asymptomatic people testing positive for Covid-19 was not very high as per the global historical data even though there was need to be “aware of this challenge” and ensure that high risk contacts of positive cases were quarantined or monitored in healthcare facilities in accordance to existing government guidelines.

“Asymptomatic people actually coming out positive is not a very big percentage, that is what the historical data from across the world has shown us," said Lav Agarwal, joint secretary in the health ministry. “So what is important for us is to be aware of this challenge and ensure that even asymptomatic people, if they are high risk people, (and) that is part of our sampling criteria. We need to monitor them, do tests for them and quarantine them,” he said.

The observations comes in the wake of some states reporting that significant percentage of positive cases were asymptomatic, leading to concerns that asymptomatic cases, unless tested and quarantined in time, can cause wider spread. The view of government experts is that the possibility of a large number of asymptomatic persons remaining undetected and not requiring medical attention is slim and point out that government continues to monitor several parameters to check for spread of Covid-19.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has also recommended pooling of samples for RT-PCR screening in areas with low prevalence of Covid-19 cases for community survey and surveillance among asymptomatic individuals who have not even come in direct contact with confirmed positive cases. Till Sunday, over 3.86 lakh samples were tested for Covid-19. Of this, 37,173 were tested on Saturday alone, according to ICMR.

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People walk past a swab testing cabin at a hospital in Mumbai on Sunday