Testing, tracing brings down the +vity rate in Amravati, Yavatmal

MUMBAI: During the start of the second wave in February, Amravati and Yavatmal had turned into epicentres with the highest positivity rates. After a month, due to rigorous Covid-19 testing and diligent contact tracing, the districts have been able to bring down the positivity rate to around 12%.

On February 14, the positivity rate of Amravati and Yavatmal was 50% and 41% respectively, the highest in the state. This not only raised concern among the state health officials, but the central health department officials also had red-flagged it. However, after a month of rigorous testing of high risk and close contacts, they have been able to control the infection rate. As of March 17, the positivity rate of Amravati and Yavatmal stands at 12% and 9%, respectively.

Dr Dilip Ranmale, district health officer (DHO), Amravati said, “Earlier, we only tested people with symptoms and high-risk contacts. This led to a few gaps and contributed to spreading the virus. So, we started testing all possible close contacts which helped us to track the infected people and break the chain of infection.”

Due to the high positivity rate, they sent samples to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) for genome sequencing where they found out a mutation (E484Q), while another four from Yavatmal showed a second mutation (N440K) of Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.

Dr Hari Pawar, DHO, Yavatmal said, “Due to the mutation of the virus, it was spreading faster. Many patients from the same families were getting infected. So, we started testing all the family members to find out asymptomatic carriers.”

“Testing is the only way to stop the spread. The higher we test, the faster we can track the infected person. Then isolate them and provide immediate treatment,” said Dr Ranmale.

Hawkers in Girgaum being tested for Covid-19.ANSHUMAN