Monday, 21 June 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
Health dept falls way short of Chief Secretary’s target of 40K tests in a day
Even as the contagion of Covid-19 has declined substantially in Uttarakhand and parameters such as infection rate, active cases and recovery percentage presents a satisfactory picture in the state, the less number of Covid -19 tests conducted by the authorities remains a major area of concern. In the week ending on June 19, the state health department had conducted 1,71,280 tests and out of them 1,892 samples were found positive for the disease. It is pertinent to mention here that the chief secretary (CS) of Uttarakhand Om Prakash had recently directed the department to conduct at least 40,000 tests per day. However the department failed miserably in reaching even near to the target set up by the CS. As per the Om Prakash’s directive the department should have conducted 2,80,000 tests in a week but only 1,71,280 tests were conducted in the week ending Saturday. It means that 39 percent less tests than the target are being done in Uttarakhand. In the previous week ( June 6 to 12) which was the 65th week ever since the first patient of Covid-19 was detected in the state on March 15 last year, only 1,65,800 tests were conducted. The data maintained by the Social Development for Communities (SDC) foundation suggests that the authorities conducted maximum tests in 57th week ( April 11 to 17) when 2,84,288 tests were conducted. The department has so far done 52,73,776 tests in the state. On account of reduced intensity of the contagion in the state, the Infection Rate (IR) is witnessing a study decline. In the week ending June 19 ( 66th week), the IR has come down to 1.1 percent. The IR was 1.83 percent and 3.19 percent in 65th and 64th week respectively. The state recorded the highest IR in week 60 ( May 2 to 8) when it soared to 24.67 percent. However it gradually declined thereafter and has now reduced to almost 1 percent. The founder of SDC foundation Anoop Nautiyal said that the CS had given a target of 40000 tests in a day to the health department but it was not achieved. He said the officials should review the goals and they should be held accountable for failing to achieve the targets.
