‘Govt policy is not to reduce tests just to show lower number of infections’
BENGALURU:
Bengaluru is now reporting more cases than any other city in India, so it is pertinent to ask why we are reporting so many cases.
That’s a question that the press does not tire of asking, while in the process missing the obvious inference.
The plain and simple fact is that Bengaluru is conducting the highest number of daily tests in the country, at around 40,000. Of these, 25,000 are RT-PCR tests and 15,000 are Rapid Antigen tests. It stands to reason therefore that the city is showing a higher number of positive cases daily.
By contrast, Mumbai has been doing about 13,000 daily tests, and Chennai too has been doing the same number of daily tests.
If Bengaluru were also to do the same number – 13,000 daily tests – our daily tally of infections would be surely less than 1,500.
But the whole idea behind our policy is to not reduce the number of daily tests and thereby show a false reduction in daily cases of infection.
In fact, Bengaluru deserves great appreciation from all stakeholders for conducting the highest number of daily RT-PCR tests, with the objective of identifying Covid-positive cases well in time and helping save the maximum number of lives.
(IAS officer Munish Moudgil heads Karnataka’s Covid-19 war room)
