Ambiguity Over Calculation of COVID Positivity Rate in Assam

OUR CORRESPONDENT

TINSUKIA: Though the Health Department has been claiming that COVID positivity rate has declined over the past week, the data released in public domain confirmed that the positivity per cent was calculated on positive cases detected on Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) only while RT PCR tests were not taken into consideration.

Taking cue from daily COVID bulletin issued by NHM Tinsukia, on Monday (May 24), it reflected that the total RAT done was 4,007 while RT PCR was done on 974 persons, of which 208 and 115 persons tested positive respectively and the positivity rate was shown to be 5.19 per cent. But had all the positive cases (RAT+RT PCR) been taken together, the positivity rate per cent should have been 6.75 per cent while on May 20 it was 6.71/7.88 per cent. As a rule of thumb, if the per cent positive (positive/total test) x100 per cent is below 5 per cent, the transmission is considered to be under control.

On query, a health official stated that while calculating positivity, only RAT positive was taken into consideration as RT PCR test results take 48 hours and cannot be added up along with RAT results of that particular day issued in the daily bulletin. Now the question arises, where and in which form the RT PCR tests are represented and what is the justification of depicting two days old data in the same sheet? Such ambiguity has created confusion among the conscious section of the society at a time when positive cases in Tinsukia district have been surging at an alarming proportion, particularly in rural areas with no sign of letting up.

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