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Coronavirus: in total, of 5,911 SARI patients, 104 (1.8 percent) have tested positive (File)
New Delhi:
Random tests of coronavirus in patients with severe respiratory diseases are showing that more and more people with no travel history are contracting the virus. Data collected by the Indian Council of Medical Research, the nodal body in the battle against the virus, showed that 38 percent of those patients, who later tested positive for the virus, had no travel history.
Two weeks ago, when asked about the possibility of community transmission of coronaviruses, the ICMR responded negatively. “Tests on SARI patients do not show community transmission,” the agency said after random testing.
SARI is a severe acute respiratory illness, and ICMR was conducting random tests on them to verify if any community transmission of the virus was occurring.
Until now, most patients in India acquired the virus from their foreign travel, or from someone who traveled abroad. This makes focusing on and isolating patients, and thus slowing the spread of the virus, relatively easy.
But experiences from other nations have shown that as the infection spreads, there comes a time when it is no longer possible to trace the source. This state is called stage 3 or community transmission, when there is an increase in infection.
In the weeks prior to Mach 14, no SARI patient had tested positive for coronavirus, as shown by ICMR data.
But when the policy was changed, instead of randomized testing, all SARI patients were evaluated, two of 106 patients tested positive between March 15-21.
The big change came later. Between March 22 and 28 Mach, of the 2,877 patients evaluated, 48 (1.7 percent) were positive. Between March 29 and April 2, 54 of 2,069 SARI patients, 54 (2.6 percent) tested positive for coronavirus.
In total, of 5,911 SARI patients, 104 (1.8 percent) have tested positive for COVID-19.
Forty of these patients reported no history of travel or international contacts. Such cases were reported in 36 Indian districts in 15 states. ICMR in its report has said that “these districts must have priority to focus on COVID-19 containment activities.”
Two patients reported contact with a confirmed case and one reported recent history of international travel. The ICMR said data on exposure history was not available for 59 (57.8 percent) patients.
A higher number of cases was observed among men and patients over 40 years: 85 cases (83.3 percent) were men. Eighty-three patients (81.4 percent) were over 40 years old.
The largest number of SARI patients, 21, tested positive for coronavirus in Maharashtra. Delhi had 14 positive cases and Gujarat 13 cases. However, it is important to note that the sample sizes were different for each state and the ICMR has cautioned in its report that the data is not “representative of the entire district or state.”
