Coronavirus / 133 new cases reported in Rajasthan, total positive cases reach 1,868

Jaipur: Rajasthan reported 133 new cases of Covid-19 on Wednesday, taking the total number of infections in the state to 1,868, the state health department said.

Jaipur, which is a coronavirus hotspot, reported 66 cases while 44 cases were reported from Ajmer, which has seen a worrying rise in cases in the past couple of days.

Six cases were reported from Kota and seven from Tonk. Four cases were reported from Nagaur. Three cases were reported from Jodhpur, another hotpot. One case each was reported from Bharatpur, Dausa and Sawai Madhopur.

Jaipur now has 663 Covid-19 cases while Jodhpur has 326, which includes 47 positive cases of evacuees from Iran. A total of 27 people have died of the coronavirus in the state.

Health minister Raghu Sharma said the positive cases were not a matter of concern as it shows the real situation on the ground regarding the spread of the disease. “Aggressive testing is part of our strategy. We are now conducting 4,700 tests per day and soon we will be in a position to carry out 10,000 tests per day. After that we will establish testing facilities in all 33 districts,” he said.

Rohit Kumar Singh, additional chief secretary, health, had already said that the rise in number of positive cases was expected on Tuesday and Wednesday as the test results of the backlog 4,000 samples sent to a private lab in Delhi have started coming will be entered in the database.

Sharma said the government had hoped that the rapid testing kits would aid in tracing symptomatic cases but the 30,000 kits that were sent by the ICMR to Rajasthan were found faulty.

“To test accuracy of the kits, we used 168 kits to test Covid-19 patients. It showed even positive patients as negative. There should have been a 90 per cent corelation between the rapid test and PCR test but there was only 5.4 per cent corelation so we stopped the tests and wrote to ICMR,” he said.

Rajasthan was also boosting the health workforce in the state with the appointment of 2,000 doctors soon, the minister said.

“The process of recruitment of 2,000 doctors that was announced in the budget has started. In one month or so, we will finish the recruitment process,” he said.

The minister said 735 doctors who were recently recruited have already been posted in districts.

He said the recruitment process 12,500 General Nursing and Midwifery (GNM) and Auxiliary Nursing Midwifery (ANM) posts had been completed but their posting was stuck due to litigation.

“We have consulted the advocate general on this and it has been decided that 9000 posts on which there are no litigations, those staff will be posted in the field.”

In view of continuing attacks on police personnel and health workers in the state, Sharma reiterated that no misbehaviour with COVID warriors will be tolerated. “Strict action will be taken and arrests will be made, if required.”

He said for convenience of patients suffering from other illnesses who are finding it difficult in these times to get treatment, the government has started 400 mobile OPD vans from Wednesday.

These vans will take patients or pregnant women to the nearest health facility so they can get treatment, especially in curfew bound and rural areas, he said.