Corona sampling rate good, say authorities

AGRA: On one hand questions are being raised on the rate at which Covid-19 samples are being tested in Agra, which has reported 870 positive cases (maximum in UP) so far, on the other district and health authorities are defending the number of samples tested ever since the first five corona cases were detected here on March 2.

As many as 35 people have died of Covid-19 while 770 others have recovered in the district. As on Thursday, there were 70 active cases here.

“We have till date tested 12,559 samples and had begun taking samples in February. Agra had first five cases on March 2 and since then sampling gained speed,” said Satish Verma, nodal officer for corona sampling and chief medical superintendent at Agra district hospital.

“We are conducting tests of corona samples at SN Medical College since mid-April and have so far tested 12,559 samples which is a good rate. The green zone districts need to test 200 samples per one lakh of population on an average. Indeed, our district is in red zone but we are maintaining an average tests of 365 samples per lakh of population in Agra district,” claimed the chief medical superintendent.

“The task of sampling is undertaken at the district hospital but our mobile teams too are active and they repeatedly collect samples of already positive cases undergoing treatment at L-1 and L-2 facilities. We have encouraged pool testing too and we were the first in the state to implement it,” added Verma.

“We are strictly following guidelines of the Indian Council of Medical Research and go for samples of those symptomatic, contacts of positive cases and also asymptomatic but in touch with positive cases. We also ensure Covid-19 tests for those going for dialysis, pregnant women and our frontline health workers besides random pool sampling is also conducted and testing in hotspot areas,” stated Dr Verma.

“We are not going to slow down sampling exercise despite fall in average positive cases in Agra as we understand the utility of sampling,” said Agra district magistrate Prabhu N Singh.

Meanwhile, Dr Narendra Malhotra, a senior private doctor in Agra, said, “Sampling is an important tool in fight against Covid-19 and lockdown alone can be of no use if aggressive sampling is not done.” In his views, the number of samples tested here so far is very low.

He further said private labs should be encouraged to carry out tests as it will widen the base of testing. However, the district administration stopped testing by private labs after discrepancies surfaced in its test reports.

Initially, most of the samples were sent to King George’s Medical University, Lucknow, while a few were sent to Saifai Medical College in Etawah and also to the lab at Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College of Aligarh Muslim University. However, SN Medical College and Hospital’s lab started functioning in mid-April. Now, tests are mainly conducted here with the assistance of National Jalma Institute for Leprosy.

The administration has also allowed two private labs to test samples of suspected Covid-19 cases.