Testing is a Window to look Into the COVID-19 Pandemic - M.A.Aleem Trichy BMJ 2020;369:m2518

BMJ

British Medical Journal 

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Covid 19: Where’s the strategy for testing?

BMJ 2020; 369 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m2518 (Published 26 June 2020)

Cite this as: BMJ 2020;369:m2518

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Testing is a Window to look Into the COVID-19 Pandemic

Testing for COVID-19 is an important window to look into the current COVID-19 Pandemic.

It is also an important tool to plan a fight against COVID-19 spread. 100% testing is not possible even in the developed countries and it is impossible in the under developed and in the developing countries.

The WHO has suggested a positive rate of around 3–12% as a general benchmark of adequate testing for COVID-19.

It also has suggested that around 10 – 30 tests per confirmed COVID-19 case is a general benchmark of adequate testing.

As of today in the 26th week of the COVID-19 Pandemic, testing only confirmed that the O.12 per cent of the world population are infected with COVID-19 infection

Among the currently infected active cases 1% (57,483) of the COVID-19 cases are critically ill and 99% (3,923,380) cases are milder form of infection.

As of today ( 26.6.2020 ) globally over 9,555,317 people are infected with COVID-19. Deaths were reported in 485,572 cases and recovery was recorded in 5,195,810 cases.

Among total number of world cases, 24.76% of the cases were reported from Europe.

About 30.01% of the cases were reported from North America which include 25.77% of cases from America.

Out of the total number of cases in the world, Asia has recorded 21.39% of cases which includes 23.39% of cases from India.

South America has registered 20.17% of the COVID-19 cases with a major contribution of 61.85% of the cases from Brazil.

The African continent has recorded 3.55% of global cases which include 32.94% of cases from South Africa.

Oceania has recorded a least number of 0.096% of global COVID-19 cases with maximum 82.27% of cases from Australia.

Competing interests: No competing interests

26 June 2020

M.A. Aleem

Emeritus Professor of Neurology * Visiting Specialist in Neurology ** Consultant Neurologist ***

The Tamilnadu Dr.M.G.R. Medical University * Dhanalakshami Srinivasan Medical College ** ABC Hospital ***

Chennai 600032* Perambalure 621212** Trichy 620018*** Tamilnadu India

@drmaaleem