Spike in cases due to high daily tests, trend may continue for 45 days: Govt

NEW DELHI: With daily testing hitting a new high of 7.2 lakh a day, the government said more testing will result in a high number of daily positive cases even as officials said detection was helping manage the disease and the current trend of cases was expected to continue over the next month and a half or so.
A doubling rate of 20 days was helping ensure medical facilities were not overwhelmed and government sources said there was greater focus on tier II and III cities and towns where cases were being detected in increasing numbers.Efforts are on to work with high case load states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka to implement containment strategies and step up testing of sections of population seen to be at risk of exposure to the virus.
The daily count of new cases has been rising — it was 62,482 on August 6; 61,163 on August 7 and 65,410 on August
8. This was a function of more testing and reflected an evolving strategy which, given limited resources and an evaluation of risks, initially focussed on foreign travellers returning to India, sources said. The trend is likely to continue for several more weeks before a tapering off can be expected.
A total of 2.4 crore tests have been carried out so far with the increasing use of rapid antigen tests helping boost testing. “India has recorded the highest number of recoveries in a single day with 53,879 Covid-19 patients having recovered and discharged on Saturday. With this, the total number of recovered cases touched another high of 14,80,884 on Sunday. This is more than twice the number of active cases (6,28,747 Sunday),” a health ministry release said.
The difference between recovered and active cases, indicative of higher number of recoveries as compared to those either in hospitals or in home isolation, was 8,52,137 on Sunday. The case fatality rate has further fallen, touching 2% on Sunday. Sources said these indicatorswere positive signs though the trajectory of the Covid-19 curve will depend on implementation of testing and containment strategies along with people’s compliance on use of masks and observance of social distancing.
With concerns expressed over rapid antigen tests delivering a high number of false negatives, the government has advised states on proper procedures as collection of samples has to be done carefully with a nasal swab collected from deep inside the nostril with a 10 second rotation. Clinical observation of the tested person is also important besides following up a negative test with an RT-PCR test.
Overall, the number of recovered cases was at 2.4 times the active cases, which were all under medical attention either in home isolation or in hospitals. As per health ministry, with a higher number of recovered patients, the recovery rate, which has continued on its growth graph, stood at 68.7% on Sunday.
The government said 7,19,364 tests were carried out in the last 24 hours.