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State to go for targeted COVID testing

By Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Sept 23 - The number of COVID-19 tests conducted in the State may go up soon as the State Health authorities are planning to carry out targeted testing of people.

�Despite repeated appeals, people are not volunteering and going for the tests. We need to trace these missing cases which have been not covered so far. It in turn will help prevent spread of the virus,� a senior Health official said.

The official said that the strategy for targeted testing is still being worked out and the districts are likely to be given targets � around 3,000 to 5,000 tests a day. Some testing may be carried out door-to-door, others will be through contact-tracing of positive patients in the screening centres. Those areas reporting more cases would be focus areas.

There has been no let-up in the number of COVID-19 positive cases in the State.

�The situation is bad. You can see the number of COVID-19 cases are increasing every day. Unless there is a vaccine, it appears that it will be difficult to contain it,� another senior Health official said.

The positivity rate, which was below 5 per cent in August, has now reached around 7 per cent. The State Health department has also launched a campaign �Jono Jagoron� to motivate people to volunteer for testing and to create awareness regarding COVID-19 prevention protocols. As part of the campaign, ASHA workers will do door to door visit in all the households.

Till 11 pm last night, 29,91,612 tests were conducted in the State which detected 1,61,393 positive cases. The number of tests conducted per million population stands at 87,237.

The mortality rate is also steadily climbing and has reached 0.36 per cent (586 deaths till Tuesday night).

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