Lucknow , Aug 19: Testing an average 3 lakh samples daily, Uttar Pradesh became the first state in the country on Thursday to achieve yet another benchmark of testing over 7 crore samples for novel coronavirus infection. “Uttar Pradesh has been testing more than 3 lakh samples regularly which is over ten times more than the prescribed testing protocol for the state by the global health body World Health Organization,” state additional chief secretary, Information Navneet Sehgal said. The testing protocol by the WHO for Uttar Pradesh is 32,000 tests per day, whereas the Covid testing in the state has hovered between 300,000 and 250,000 of late. He said Uttar Pradesh has come a long way from getting the first Covid test conducted from the lab at National Institute of Virology, Pune in 2020 to breaching the 7 crore tests-frontier that testifies the enlarged testing capacity in the state. Despite being the most populous state in the country, UP has outperformed all other states including Delhi, Maharashtra and Rajasthan by conducting a total of 1.50 lakh RT-PCR tests on an average daily. Testing is the backbone for curbing the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 as it helps timely detection of cases and their isolation and contact tracing. A widely deployed and efficient testing strategy in Uttar Pradesh has helped in limiting the spread of new cases as it significantly reduced the chance of individuals with undetected virus exposure from roaming freely among unexposed individuals. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has constantly emphasised on the importance of aggressive testing according to which the state has been following the ‘Trace, Test and Treat’ mantra and is reaching the last mile to break the Covid Chain. The state government even further initiated world’s largest house-to-house surveillance of COVID-19 in rural areas to contain transmission by testing people with symptoms for rapid isolation, disease management and contact tracing. More than 73000 Surveillance Committees constituted by the Yogi government are moving across 97,941 villages in all 75 districts for this activity, which began on 5 May, and has been extended to cover 100 percent rural households. The 70 percent of tests since the second wave surge of Covid-19 cases in the state have solely been conducted in the rural regions. In addition, to spread awareness regarding the importance of early detection and early treatment, the surveillance committees have also been visiting houses in rural areas to educate the rural population and have been repeatedly appealing to not hide the symptoms and rather get themselves tested. The state’s rural-control strategies, as well as both community-based and individual case-based control measures, so far have been overall effective in identifying and treating patients.
