Much to the shock of many, some of the Telangana doctors wrote to the Inter Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) about the fewers tests, non reporting of Covid deaths, situation in isolation wards and facilities for doctors that would have serious repercussions while fighting the pandemic.
As per the report of the popular news daily, Dr Santhosh Kraleti, Dr Vijayanand Jamapuri, Dr G Veda Prakash, Dr M Srikanth, Dr M Rajender Reddy and Dr Karuna, on behalf of Doctors for Seva, an NGO comprising doctors and public health specialists highlighted many gaps in the fight against the pandemic.
“Fewer tests are happening in the state and they are projecting a low total number of cases. Only when more tests are done, we get more positive reports. If we continue to under-test, then we will miss many un-tested positive patients in the community,” the letter reads.
It is also evident as per the reports that Telangana is performing less number of tests when compared to Andhra Pradesh and other states, but the infection is rate is higher.
So far 19,300 tests were performed in Telangana as on April 30th (551 tests per million population). The letter says that Maharashtra has performed 1212 per million, Delhi did 2778 per million and Andhra Pradesh has conducted 1930 tests per million population.
The doctors have expressed their doubt that the actual caseload could be much higher and once the lockdown is relaxed, the positive patients those missed the tests could cause the surge in a number of cases in Telangana.
The doctors have also mentioned that the suspected and primary contacts are kept in dormitory wards with common toilets which may result in increase in positive numbers.
But the Telangana government has made it clear that it was against indiscriminate tests for Covid-19. Minister KTR also explained that the government did not allow private labs to keep them away from swindling the public.
