NEW DELHI, May 20: Soon after releasing an easy “do it yourself” home test “Covislf” for Covid-19, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) issued an advisory asking people not to indiscriminately use the home-based rapid antigen testing (RAT) kit and said it should be used only on symptomatic individuals and on immediate contacts of laboratory confirmed positive cases.
The country’s apex health research body said that the home-based rapid antigen testing kit manufactured by Mylab Discovery Solutions Ltd, Pune, has been validated and approved.
Meanwhile, the Health Ministry spokesperson Lav Agarwal, during a media briefing said there has been a decline in active cases in the past 15 days. On May 3, the active cases were 17.13%, now 12.1%. The recovered cases have increased from about 80% to 86.7%.
Eight States have more than one lakh active cases, nine have 50,000 to 1 lakh and 19 States have below 50,000 active cases.
Karnataka has the maximum of 5,58,911 active cases, followed by Maharashtra with 404229, Kerala with 332226, Tamil Nadu with 253576, Andhra Pradesh 209736, Rajasthan with 153126, West Bengal with 131491 and UP with 123579.
Decline in active cases in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala, Rajasthan UP and Gujarat noticed. However, in Tamil Nadu, still there is an increased growth rate on day-on-day basis.
22 States/UTs have more than 15% positivity, including Lakshadweep, Goa, Puducherry, West Bengal, Karnataka, Sikkim, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Nagaland, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Manipur, Chandigarh, Meghalaya, Haryana, J&K, Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
13 States have 5 to 15% positivity, while one has below 5%. In April 28-May 4 week, 531 districts were reporting more than 100 daily cases, they are now reduced to 430 districts in May 12-18. There has been a progressive increase in districts reporting decline in case positivity, from 210 in April 29-May 5, to 214 in May 6-12 and 303 in My 12-19.
States with decline in cases and decline in positivity in last three weeks: Maharashtra, Rajasthan, UP, Haryana, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Jharkhand.
States with rise in cases and rise in positivity in the past three weeks; Tamil Nadu, Meghalaya, Tripura, Manipur, Nagaland, Sikkim, Mizoram.
State wise districts showing decline in cases in the past two weeks: A&N Islands (1), Andhra Pradesh (1), Arunachal Pradesh (1), Bihar (21), Chhattisgarh (13), Dadra and Nagar Haveli (1), Delhi (8), Gujarat (10), Haryana (5), Himachal Pradesh (1), Jharkhand (10), Kerala (6), Lakshadweep (1), MP (36), Maharashtra (24), Mizoram (1), Puducherry (1), Rajasthan (13), UP 43), West Bengal (3).
Districts showing continued decrease in cases and positivity since last three weeks: Pune, Thrissur, Kottayam, Gurugram, Thane, Satara, Nagpur, Indore.
Districts showing continued increase in cases and positivity since last three weeks: Malappuram, East Godavari, Coimbatore, Kollam, Anantapur, Chengalpattu, Belagavi, Tiruchirappalli.
Meanwhile, the Union Health Ministry has urged states and union territories to make black fungus or mucormycosis a notifiable disease under the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, stating that the infection is leading to prolonged morbidity and mortality amongst COVID-19 patients.
The ministry, in a letter, said in the recent times a new challenge in the form of a fungal infection namely mucormycosis has emerged and is reported from many states amongst COVID-19 patients, especially those on steroid therapy and deranged sugar control. “This fungal infection is leading to prolonged morbidity and mortality amongst COVID 19 patients,” Agarwal said in the letter.
It said the treatment of the fungal infection required a multi-disciplinary approach that involved eye surgeons, ENT specialists, general surgeons, neurosurgeons and dental maxilo facial surgeons and the use of Amphotericin B as an anti-fungal medicine, he noted.
“You are requested to make mucormycosis a notifiable disease under Epidemic Diseases Act 1897, wherein all government and private health facilities, medical colleges will follow guidelines for screening, diagnosis, management of mucormycosis, issued by MoHFW (Gol) and ICMR and make it mandatory for all these facilities to report all suspected and confirmed cases to Health Department through district level Chief Medical Officer and subsequently to IDSP [Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme] surveillance system,” he wrote.
Soon after the centre’s letter, the Telangana government on Thursday declared Mucormycosis a notifiable disease under the Epidemic Diseases Act 1897.
According to the notification, all government-run and private healthcare facilities will be required to follow the guidelines for screening, diagnosis and management of Mucormycosis as issued by the Centre and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). The state health department also made the failure to report such cases of Mucormycosis a punishable offence.
(Manas Dasgupta)