Does India have enough equipment to test Corona?

Till now, India has done a reasonably good job to keep the situations under control like airport screening, public awareness, quarantining and even announced lockdown of the whole nation for 21 days, in fear of mass community transmission of coronavirus. But if it does, the main cause will be limited testing facilities.

According to the Associated Press, India can test 8,000 samples per day but it is testing only 90 per day. As we don’t have enough equipment, the country had limited the tests. So, only people who have been in touch with an infected person or those who have traveled to virus hit countries, or health workers managing patients with a severe respiratory disease where tested-as per last week.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged countries to test as widely as possible to stop the pandemic.”All countries should be able to test all suspected cases, they cannot fight this pandemic blindfolded,” -WHO.

Why mass testing is important?

Limited testing is the most common mistake that every country witnessing a mass explosion of cases has done. Early and mass testing makes all the difference because, in many cases, coronavirus can be asymptomatic. To put it simply, the virus may have entered our body but we don’t show any symptoms at all. Unaware of that, we go around spreading it.

The reason South Korea, despite having the second-highest cases recorded after China, had controlled the widespread of the virus is by conducting mass testing. It proved that coronavirus is spreading to people in large numbers but showing mild or no symptoms. By identifying and isolating such people, countries like South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore have been able to delay the spread of coronavirus and keep their mortality rates low.

They were also ready with the infrastructure to deal with those who tested positive, such as quarantining them and protecting health workers and doctors and disinfecting public places. As there is short of vaccination, mass testing is the best we can do.

What is India’s condition?

Out of India’s total population, more than 400 million people are living in crowded cities, many without access to clean water, conditions that could allow the disease to spread rapidly. The virus causes only mild symptoms, such as fever and cough of most people but it is a severe illness for elderly people with existing health problems. India has a lower proportion of elderly than other countries, but its healthcare facilities are limited and already struggle to accommodate a large number of patients with other diseases.

India has been reluctant to expand testing, not to panic people and hospitals, but also because of the cost. As the tests are free for patients, they cost the government about 5,000 rupees each. In an already stretched and underfunded public healthcare system, money spent on the coronavirus leaves less for other public health problems.

T Many quarantines, fleeing from isolation wards, complaining of filthy conditions, is also the way of spreading coronavirus. Recently, the Modi government has ordered a million test kits from Germany and the ICMR has been slowly expanding testing. These measures were taken this week.

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