Covid: Don’t drop your guard

NO SYMPTOMS: PEOPLE ‘COULD BE PASSING VIRUS’

Amid accusations that government is slacking on testing to save costs, an expert warns people to not be lax as the virus could be ‘gathering forces’ and circulating among communities where some showed no symptoms.

Decline in testing did not mean the pandemic is over, warns expert.

The demand for Covid-19 testing might have steadily decreased in the past weeks but hotspot areas will now be prioritised as the high risk of “sparking the flames” of the virus in communities still exists, says experts.

South Africa, which had the biggest Covid-19 testing programme on the continent, has seen a decline in testing, now standing at 18 123 new tests as of yesterday afternoon, compared to 36 616 on 6 August.

A large majority of tests, 79%, were passive case finding, such as contact tracing and those who were hospitalised, while 21% were due to community screening and testing. About 57% of the cumulative tests were done in private labs while the remaining 43% were conducted in public laboratories.

But the decline in testing did not mean the pandemic was over and was only a result of a lower demand in testing, said Professor Koleka Mlisana, chair of the laboratory testing committee of the Covid-19 ministerial advisory committee.

“The testing strategy did change – from community screening and testing to prioritisation of testing [which was] those who were hospitalised and contacted and healthcare workers, and that is why there is a decline. If the positivity rate has come down, there is a definite decline, but we know that the infections are not completely off,” she said.

Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said on Friday the positivity rate was now at 11% nationally as compared to 30% at the peak of the pandemic in mid-July.

This, however, did not mean the pandemic was improving as the virus could be “gathering forces” and circulating among communities where people showed no symptoms, said epidemiologist Professor Jo Barnes.

Barnes blamed the National Health Laboratory Services (NHLS) for slacking as an attempt to cut costs. It would be hard to predict a possible second wave without sufficient test results for analysis, she said.

“If you don’t test people with slight symptoms, then you don’t know where those quietly, silently circulating cases are. [Some people] don’t show symptoms and then pass it on and keep the epidemic alive.

“The NHLS is under strain and they have often been accused of mismanagement and worse. I have no doubt they are trying to make their workload lighter and keep the costs down but as soon as the pandemic seems to improve, they slacken up the testing… the problem is a funding and manpower issue,” said Barnes.

Mlisana was adamant that the healthcare system had capacity to conduct tests and that community high risk areas would be prioritised. What was of concern was people not adhering to interventions to stop the spread of the virus.

“Because the lockdown level has changed, people will get lax… There is a need to review the prioritisation strategy to be expanded because there is capacity for testing. It makes sense to then explore if we should be increasing testing demand,” Mlisana said.

“We are far from ever reaching zero infections and we know that if people continue ignoring the interventions, there is a high risk of sparking a flame that is left of infections.”

The country has now moved to seventh place worldwide in terms of Covid-19 infections and is ranked 13th in cumulative Covid-19 related deaths.