Mysuru struggles to increase collection of swab samples amid pressure to bring down TPR

Big fall in number of people coming forward for testing

The district administration and health officials in Mysuru are struggling to increase collection of swab samples for COVID-19 tests amid pressure from the business and services sector to ease the lockdown restrictions that were continued in the district due to its high Test Positivity Rate (TPR). The district administration, which was carrying out 3,500-4,000 tests every day during May, revised it to 7,000 in the first week of June before further revising it to 9,700 at present, but the health officials were struggling to gather the necessary number of swab samples to meet the daily target of tests. The strategy is to bring down the TPR, which was more than 12.11 per cent in Mysuru last week, which prompted the State government to continue the lockdown curbs in the district. “It is basic arithmetic to increase the denominator to bring down the TPR. That is the strategy”, an official said.