NEW DELHI: India is showing a surge in Covid-19 cases, with the test positivity rate (TPR) -- a vital marker in assessing the spread of an outbreak -- touching 8.40% on April 16. It is the highest TPR, which indicates the percentage of people who are found to be infected by the virus from those who are being tested, since February 3, 2022, when the third wave driven by Omicron saw a surge in India.
Apart from Delhi, the other states that reported high TPR on April 17 are Goa (15.38%), Rajasthan (15.69%), Haryana (14.28%), Uttarakhand (11.94%), Karnataka (8.92%), Chandigarh (8.47%) Tamil Nadu (8.66 %) and Himachal Pradesh (7.07%).
Though Kerala is reporting the highest number of Covid-19 cases and deaths, it is not publicly sharing the number of Covid-19 tests and TPR. Sachin Taparia, Founder of LocalCircles, said: “In most cases, people are showing up at their workplaces or schools/colleges and using public transport despite having symptoms, spreading the infection, which wasn’t the case during the first three waves,” Taparia said.
According to Dr Rajeev Jayadevan, co-chairman of the National Indian Medical Association (IMA) Covid-19 task force, TPR indicates how much spread is happening in the community. Citing an example, he said in some hospitals in Kerala, which is systematic in conducting Covid-19 tests, in early March, no positive cases were reported, but in mid-March, it went up to 10%.
However, by April, the number spiked to 40-42%. “Earlier, testing was systematic; now it is symptom-based. People are not taking Covid-19 tests as they consider it a waste of time and money and recovering at home, assuming they have Covid-19. This leads to gross underestimation of the amount of infection in the community,” Dr Jayadevan told this paper.
