Asymptomatic contacts not required to test as per revised Covid-19 testing protocols: Minister Ma Subramanian

The contact tracing for the contacts of those testing positive for COVID-19 are not required to be tested if they are not symptomatic as per the revised regulations on testing for COVID-19 that have been issued by Indian Council of Medical Research recently, health minister Ma Subramanian said on Friday. Health minister said that the Union Government has revised the testing protocol and the new guidelines have indicated to skip the contact tracing as the cases have reduced.

He said that the daily samples testing was done for more than 1 lakh samples and now it has reduced to about 80,000 as the cases of COVID-19 have reduced and there is no requirement to test those without symptoms, as they are turning out negative. The positivity rate in the State is about 1.5 percent as of Thursday.

Talking about the admission to AIIMS, health minister said that 50 seats have been allocated and the students have been admitted for the medical course at the newly inaugurated Ramanathapuram Medical College and Hospital this year. He added that the State Government has urged the Union Government in a petition to start the construction of the AIIMS college immediately and since the admissions of the students cannot be cancelled, they are admitted to the Ramanathapuram Medical College and Hospital. The college has been allotted 100 seats and it can accommodate upto 150 students, thus, we recommended this.

When asked about the local body elections, he said that DMK is likely to win as he is aware of the scenario and it indicates good performance of the party in the upcoming elections.