Covid-19: India may need to rework 'test, trace, isolate and treat' strategy

The number of Covid-19 infections has been reducing in Delhi and other parts of India, but experts believe that the reason behind this decrease is not the Omicron situation improving, but low testing.

Except the elderly and patients with comorbidities, asymptomatic contacts of infected individuals are not being tested, according to the latest advisory by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). Hospitals have also relaxed testing rules of asymptomatic patients undergoing surgical procedures.

However, this may not have any impact on the containment of the pandemic.

“A majority of Covid-19 cases being reported currently are caused by the Omicron variant. It is highly transmissible and has already spread in the community. We cannot depend on the test, trace, isolate and treat strategy anymore. It is more prudent to test individuals who have symptoms and provide timely medical attention to those who develop severe infection,” Dr NK Mehra, eminent immunologist and former dean of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, told TOI.

'Test, trace, isolate and treat' have been the core management strategies since the beginning of the pandemic.

Dr Chandrakant Lahariya, epidemiologist and public policy expert, tells TOI that excess testing was unwarranted.

Testing can be beneficial if early identification of Covid-19 warrants specific management strategy or medical intervention, Lahariya said, adding that when in the case of Covid-19 treatment is mostly symptomatic, therefore, it doesn’t make sense to test asymptomatic contacts.

To Lahariya, even from a public health perspective, testing on a mass scale was not required as Covid-19 has already spread to the community level.

“During the early phases of the pandemic and even when the third wave began, testing and tracing remained important so that we could prevent the disease from spreading," Lahariya said.

"That’s not possible anymore, especially with this highly transmissible variant in play. Instead, we should focus on vaccinating maximum people because data suggests that the unvaccinated are at highest risk to develop severe symptoms or die due to Covid-19 caused by the new variant."

(With inputs from TOI)