State over-reported asymptomatic nos
TS had claimed 90%, now says it’s 69%
The state government on Sunday, for the first time, acknowledged that its much-touted claim that asymptomatic cases of
Covid-19 — in which people do not require any medical care — dominate the disease in the state have been wrong all along.
Information provided by the health department on Sunday showed that the government either grossly underestimated, or adopted a fictitious narrative, with respect to informing people on the true extent and impact of Covid-19.
In the Covid-19 bulletin issued on Sunday, the state health department inserted a new, but brief, table providing details of the number of asymptomatic and symptomatic
Covid-19 cases. Titled ‘Status of symptomatic/asymptomatic’, the health department said that of the total 1,23,090
Covid-19 cases so far,
84,932 were asymptomatic which works out of 69 per cent. The balance 38,158 cases, accounting for 31 per cent, have been symptomatic, the bulletin revealed.
The government’s stand till Sunday was that up to
90 per cent of all Covid-19 infected people remained asymptomatic in the state and that they would not even be aware that they have caught the disease.
Of the remaining 10 per cent, the government’s stand was that half of them would have mild to moderate symptoms and could be treated without
too many complications. It was the balance five per cent of the entire cases who might require intensive care and specialised treatment, the state government has been saying for months now.
Incidentally, Sunday’s bulletin for the 24-hour period between 8 pm on Friday and 8 pm on Saturday, also included, for the first time, details of tests done on primary and secondary contacts of people found to be Covid-19 positive.
The health department said that in this 24-hour period, a total of 61,148 tests were conducted and of these, 27,516 were on primary contacts of Covid
19 positive persons while
8,560 tests were performed on their secondary contacts. A further 27,072 tests were on other individuals.