Like during the second wave of oximeters there was a lot of demand coronavirus In the third wave of the pandemic, the demand for self-testing kits is witnessing a sharp rise. Chemists in the city say that there has been a huge rush to buy these kits, which people can use to check their infection status.
Hasmukh Rawal, managing director of Mylab Discovery Solutions, a firm that developed the first self-test kits in the country, said the demand had peaked in December itself. omicron The version spread rapidly to other countries, and has gained further momentum in the past few days.
“Our kit sales in December were double as compared to November. The highest demand has been in Maharashtra, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Delhi and Andhra Pradesh. It is in great demand in big metros like Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.
Anil Belkar, secretary of the Pune District Association of Chemists, also confirmed the trend. “Both sales and inquiries of these self-testing kits have increased significantly in the last few days,” he said.
Self-testing kits are not as robust as RT-PCR tests but are very useful for quick status checks, especially due to the rush in laboratories due to rapidly rising cases. Over 30,000 samples were tested in Pune district on Friday, the highest in several months.
The district reported 4,415 new infections, a 21 percent increase compared to Thursday’s 3,648 searches.
Diagnostic laboratories say that the number of people coming for RT-PCR tests has more than tripled in the last one week.
“The positivity rate, which fell below five per cent a few weeks ago, has gone up to over 25 per cent at some places in the district. Dr Avanti Govilkar Mehendle, director and head of laboratory at AG Diagnostics, said that while the total number of tests has increased, the positivity has also increased exponentially.
Dr Mahendale said there were a large number of re-infection cases. “It wasn’t there before. Presumably the immunity from an earlier infection is no longer effective. The positive is that the symptoms are still mild. During the last wave, inflammatory markers were really high and many people had moderate to severe disease.” This time, serious cases are very less,” she said.
On Friday, 709 patients were declared to have recovered from the disease, while five deaths were reported – two each from Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and Pune Rural, while one came from the Council (NP).
Areas under Pune Municipal Corporation reported 2,757 cases on Monday, followed by PCMC (1,000), Pune Rural (454), Councils (NP) (115) and Cantonment (89).
The district now has over 15,000 active cases, of which over 9,000 live in PMC areas.
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