Even as the daily caseload of Covid-19 positives in the Capital City has dropped by more than half within 19-days after attaining the peak (1,363) on May 16, the State Capital still lies in the 'critical' incidence zone. For this, BMC Commissioner Sanjay Singh today announced increasing the test count in the coming days.
As per the data available with BMC, the Capital City attained the peak in the second wave on May 16, when the daily caseload on the day crossed the 1300 mark. The second wave peak in State Capital has been nearly 2.3 times that of the first wave peak of 580, which had been recorded on September 3, 2020. In contrast, the State peak in the second wave has been nearly 3 times of the first wave peak.
The daily caseload detected today in the Capital City has been 592. And the test positive rate (TPR) has declined today to around 15 per cent from the peak TPR of 34 per cent on May 16.
Bhubaneswar Still Critical?
As per WHO norms on Covid-19 incidence norms, if the daily infections in a place during the last 24 hours remain over 25 per lakh population, then the Coronavirus incidence there will be termed as critical.
Though the incidence of Covid-19 in State Capital has dropped from the peak of 114 per lakh population, it is still very high at around 49.8 per lakh population today. For which, Bhubaneswar has been grouped in the place having 'critical' incidence of the disease, after climbing down from 'extremely critical' in May.
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City Needs More Tests?
As the incidence of coronavirus in the State capital is still high, the WHO guidelines call for increasing the number of tests as the high incidence indicates wider transmission. So, the apex health body calls for wider Covid-19 test coverage.
When it comes to the number of tests per confirmed cases daily in the Capital city, the ratio today stands at over 6.7, which is much below the WHO benchmark of around 20 tests per confirmed case.
Simply put, the tests per confirmed case also points to the high incidence of the disease in the State capital. It shows, now, for nearly every 7 tests, one is being confirmed as positive. The national rate is 12.3, which means for every 12 tests conducted, one positive is detected.
Going by the yardstick, the State Capital City needs at least 6000 tests to gauge the real transmission level of the virus in the city.
Critical Patient Count Eases Marginally
Despite the Capital City has been on the downside of the peak, the burden on ICU has eased marginally. The data with BMC reveals that still, nearly 1000 patients in the city need intensive care hospitalisation. Post the peak, during the last 19 days, the ICU occupancy has dropped to around 84 per cent from around 92 per cent on May 16. The occupancy of 84 per cent in critical care units is considered in epidemic parameters as very high, which puts the spotlight on not so efficient case management in the City.
"As the acuteness of a case manifests after 5th day from the onset of symptoms, the Covid-19 cell in the State Capital should try to detect and treat a positive case with anti-viral medicines well before the 5th day. Any delay will only add to the count of critical patients," observed a senior doctor in a Covid hospital.