Sentinel surveys and testing only for those who are vulnerable should be the way forward for Covid surveillance, said health department officials, public health experts and doctors.
As daily new Covid cases continued to rise in West Bengal, health officials and experts said there was no need for mass testing at the moment.
On Friday, 1,739 new Covid cases were reported from Bengal, the highest from Kolkata, according to the health department.
“Still, most people are asymptomatic or are having mild symptoms. So, at this point there is no need for mass testing. It will put pressure on the infrastructure. Instead, we are focussing on sentinel surveillance,” a senior official of the state health department said on Friday.
Sentinel surveillance is the monitoring of the rate of occurrence of Covid through a network of doctors, laboratories and public health departments to assess the stability or change in health conditions of a population.
“At present, the fourth sentinel survey is going on across West Bengal. More will be conducted,” said the official.
Abhijit Chowdhury, a public health expert and a member of the West Bengal government’s Covid-19 task force, said that there was no point in mass testing. He said instead, the plan now is to do “sentinel testing”.
“Suppose there are many people exhibiting Covid-like symptoms in a place. Ten persons should be tested from that place. If a majority of them test positive for Covid, then it has to be understood that the infection has spread in that place and further tests can be done,” said Chowdhury.
“But if only a small minority test positive for Covid then it could be that there is some other infection and that has to be found out,” he said.
According to Chowdhury, instead of mass testing, the focus should be on monitoring oxygen saturation. One of the major complications suffered by a Covid patient, who has moderate or severe symptoms, is dipping oxygen saturation.
“If someone has mild symptoms then instead of testing, they should stay in isolation for a few days and check oxygen saturation. If the saturation drops, then Covid tests can be conducted,” said Chowdhury.
Chandramouli Bhattacharya, infectious diseases expert at Peerless Hospital, said mass testing is not required but those who are elderly or have severe comorbidities should get tested for Covid if they have symptoms.
“There is no requirement for mass testing as long as people are willing to self isolate if they have symptoms, as the disease is moderate in a majority of the cases now. However, for elderly people or those with severe comorbidities, early testing should be encouraged, which will enable them to seek early medical assistance,” said Bhattacharya.
The state health department on Thursday issued a modified protocol for testing for hospitals. These include:
- No Covid test is needed for routine hospital admission, prior to any surgery, unless the patient is symptomatic suggestive of Covid-19
- Pre-procedure screening only for procedures involving oral/nasal cavity or pharynx where surgeon is in close contact for long duration
- Test is needed for all respiratory symptomatic patients with fever requiring hospitalisation.
“We are following the government advisory and not conducting tests for all patients,” said R. Venkatesh, regional director, east and south of Narayana Health that operates several hospitals in and around Kolkata.
Till few months back, Covid testing was mandatory for all patients getting admitted to hospitals in West Bengal.