Maharashtra to go for pool testing to defeat coronavirus

Having tested more than 40,000 swab samples and a strict contact-tracing mechanism in place, Maharashtra will go in for "pool testing" to achieve the zero COVID-19 goal.

While in Maharashtra, the spread has come down in places like Nagpur and Pune, the problem area is Mumbai and the larger Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).

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Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and public health and family welfare minister Rajesh Tope has repeatedly said that the state would now go in for pool testing.
"We are going in for the new concept of pool testing," Tope said.

The Maharashtra government has maintained that the state was in COVID-19 stage 2 and would at any cost avoid reaching stage 3.

With examples of Germany and Israel, the state government has sought permission from the Centre and the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) to allow pool testing, particularly in places like the Mumbai-MMR area that is a hotspot of India's coronavirus crisis.

The Uttar Pradesh government is also contemplating the idea of pool testing, reports reaching here said.

During the video-conference meeting of CMs with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Thackeray had spoken about this.

The pool testing method involves putting multiple swab samples together and testing them in a single real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test. If a batch tests positive, then everyone whose samples were a part of that batch would have to be tested separately. And if a batch tests negative, then everyone is in the safe zone.

The purpose is to save time and kits and keep on eliminating the possibility area by area.

The concept assumes importance as state's 61 per cent cases are in Mumbai, 10 per cent in remaining MMR, 20 per cent in Pune, and nine per cent in rest of state.

Besides, this needs to be noted that 70 per cent of the cases are asymptomatic, 25 per cent show mild symptoms and 5 per cent are critical that needed oxygen support.
The state is also planning to divide the state in red, yellow and green zones .

Mumbai and MMR areas like Navi Mumbai, Thane, Palghar, and Pune will fall under the "red zone" as they have reported 91 per cent of the cases. The red zones will include districts which have reported more than 15 COVID-19 cases, while the orange zones will cover the areas where 15 or less number of cases have been reported. The green zones will cover the districts which have reported 0 or one case. Irrespective of zone, social distancing would have to be maintained.

According to Tope, the cumulative daily growth of positive patients is approximately 13 per cent, while the death rate is 5.5 per cent.

The state government will categorise hospitals in three ways: COVID-19 Care Centres (CCC) in which there will be 100 per cent asymptomatic patients and CoviCOVID-19 Health Centres which will treat persons with mild symptoms and COVID-19 Hospitals where severe and critical individuals will be admitted. Big hospitals like Seven Hills would be able to admit patients of all categories.