India carried out 15 lakh COVID-19 tests on Jan 6, but that is not enough

• The number of positive COVID-19 cases has more than tripled since January 3 when India reported only 37,000 cases.
• According to researchers at IIT Kanpur, India’s Omicron cases will peak by February 3, 2022.
• The government of India expressed concern over a considerable decline in COVID-19 testing in 8 states and a union territory.

Over 15 lakh people were tested for COVID-19 on January 6, of which 1.12 lakh were actually positive. The number of positive cases has tripled since January 3 when India reported only 37,000 cases.

India’s central and state governments have taken cognisance of these reports and introduced several new guidelines, as well as restrictions, to bolster its medical preparedness.

The government of India, on January 6, expressed concern over a considerable decline in COVID-19 testing in eight states and one union territory. Additional Secretary of Union Health Ministry Arti Ahuja, in a letter, urged these regions to ramp up COVID-19 testing to limit the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant.

It is rather impossible to determine the true level of infection in absence of sufficient testing, Ahuja added. States have been recommended to test all individuals with fever with/without cough, headache, sore throat, body ache, recent loss of taste or smell, fatigue and diarrhoea.

Central government has reached out to the following regions:

States	Tests carried on January 6	Total testing since March 2020
Punjab	N/A	1.7 crore
Tamil Nadu	1.3 lakh	5.7 crore
Odisha	72,400	2.6 crore
Uttar Pradesh	N/A	9 crore
Meghalaya	N/A	12.6 lakh
Jammu and Kashmir	51,800	2 crore
Bihar	1.7 lakh	6.1 crore
Uttarakhand	18,400	84.9 lakh
Mizoram	5,800	13.4 lakh

Source: COVID-19 tracker, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

"Keeping in mind the unpredictable and highly transmissible behaviour of Omicron and the larger preponderance of asymptomatic cases, ramping up testing in the initial days itself will help to ensure that the infected individual does not spread the virus to others," she said.

According to researchers at IIT Kanpur, India’s Omicron cases will peak by February 3, 2022. The forecast is based on the assumption that India will follow the trends of rise in cases seen in other countries. The research also used the rate of increase in cases from the first and second waves in India.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has highlighted that Omicron, even though mild, is not common cold and should be taken seriously. The United Nations’ health agency has also warned that it could still pose “very high” risk and overwhelm healthcare systems across the globe.

“Just like previous variants, Omicron is hospitalising people and it is killing people,” Director General of WHO, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said.


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