The Congress fielded the Health Ministers of Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, Raghu Sharma and TS Singh Deo, on Wednesday to highlight inadequacies in anti-Covid 19 operations. While both the Ministers said they were cooperating with the Centre, they demanded more coordinated efforts to take on the disease in an effective manner.
Shortage of kits
Sharma said the State was reeling under a shortage of nuclear extraction kits which are essential to run reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests on patients for novel coronavirus. “These kits are supplied by Indian Council of Medical Research to the States. Because we were not getting supplies, and there was a huge backlog of cases, we have had to send samples to private-run Lal Pathlabs in Delhi to get them tested,” said Sharma.
Regarding the failure of rapid antibody test kits, Sharma said that ICMR had sent 30,000 chinese kits to Rajasthan, and the State had procured 10,000 on its own. The State had constituted a committee of medical experts to figure out the accuracy of these kits. “We ran 168 rapid tests on those patients hospitalised with us who were already positive on RT-PCR tests, to test accuracy of the antibody kits. We realised that in only 5.4 per cent cases we received accurate results. This has now led ICMR to call for halting testing unless the central team investigates the kit quality,” Sharma said.
Deo pointed out that RT-PCR tests were being conducted on manual machines in AIIMS Raipur and that the State had written to the centre for procuring automated RNA - DNA extractors, in a bid to ramp up testing.
“Chhattisgarh alone will need 3 lakh tests in a scenario where ten per cent of its population is affected. If our facility does 1,000 tests per day, we will take 3,000 days to reach an ideal testing scene. As of now Chattisgarh is conducting only 275 tests per million population. We are in a dark room, and we have no information about the virus in those cases who have no symptoms. There is no other solution except testing more,” Deo said. Detailing the efforts taken at the States, the Health Ministers said the lockdown is being implemented effectively, foodgrains and other essential supplies are reaching the people. Sharma added that in the coming ten days, Rajasthan will be able to do 10,000 RT-PCR tests every day. “The Chief Minister has directed to facilitate testing in 33 districts,” he said.
“A total of 26 districts have received positive cases in Rajasthan. There are more than 100 cases in six districts. As soon as the case of a doctor being positive in Bhilwara came to light, we immediately took effective steps. Initial 25 out of 27 cases in Bhilwara have been cured. Two patients died. Right now there have been 4-5 cases reported,” he said.
Working with Centre
He added that the Rajasthan government is fully cooperating with the central government. “We did not hide any information from the team that came from the centre. We have advised them to visit each district so that they can see the quarantine and isolation centres,” Sharma said.
Making it clear that asymptomatic cases are a challenge for the whole country, they said the country should make a Centre-States joint strategy towards more testings.