A private survey carried out in the Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) reported that 63 per cent participants did not undergo any Covid-19 test despite having Covid-like symptoms in the last 30 days.
LocalCircles, a digital community-based platform, has reported these findings at a time when Delhi is reportign a spike in daily Covid-19 infections and positivity rate for over a week.
Delhi on Sunday reported 2,423 daily Covid-19 infections, the highest since January. The positivity rate also also soared to 14.97 on Sunday compared to 13.84 on Saturday.
LocalCircles in a statement said that there were 10,821 responses to their survey that was carried out in the form of a questionnaire. It added that 67 per cent respondents were men, 33 per cent were women.
Some of the questions in the survey were — "In the last one month when you or family members in Delhi-NCR had some symptoms and needed a Covid test (non-travel), and what type of test did you undertake?"
In response to this question, none of the respondents said only RT-PCR, said LocalCircles.
While 25 per cent of the respondents said they opted for Rapid Antigen Test (RAT), 12 per cent said 'both RT-PCR and Rapid Antigen Test'.
However, 63 per cent of residents said they took none of these tests despite having symptoms, LocalCircles said in the statement.
LocalCircle said in a statement, "The community feedback indicates that two among three people are either just not getting tested and taking treatment based on symptoms, and about one thirds are taking at-home rapid antigen test. Of this, 37 per cent who are taking the at-home rapid antigen test, 12 per cent are re-validating it with an RT-PCR test."
RATs are known to have lower sensitivity as compared to RT-PCR tests, which are considered "gold standard" for Covid-19 testing. RATs can have a false negative results —when results are negative but you are actually positve— in as many as 50-60 per cent of cases, reported The Print.
It noted, "Rapid antigen tests are known to be prone to false negatives, which is why protocol mandates that all RAT-negative samples from symptomatic people have to be retested using RT-PCR. Experts say it is possible that a rapid antigen test can miss an infection in 50-60 per cent cases."
Moreover, survey findings also higlight poor adherance to Covid-19 norms. In light of the current surge in Delhi, experts have highlighted Covid-inappropriate behaviour of the people. They have noted that people letting their guard down and not following social distancing norms are the leading causes for the surge. Besides these reasons, waning interest in getting booster doses of coronavirus vaccine has also been highlighted.
(With PTI inputs)
