Actual number of Covid-19 cases 4 times the official count: Mazumdar-Shaw

Biocon chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw on Thursday said a large number of people are under quarantine without being tested and the actual number of positive cases will be at least four times the reported count.

 

"I am sure the number (of positive cases) is much larger. It has to be much larger. If you look at the numbers in quarantine itself who have not been tested, I would say at least four times that number it will be, minimum, Mazumdar- Shaw told PTI.
 

 

She also stressed on the need for random testing and making wearing of masks mandatory for everyone.

 

The country's death toll due to the coronavirus rose to 169 and the number of cases to 5,865 in the country, according to the Union Health Ministry on Thursday. 

“Testing only those with symptoms is not such a great idea. A lot of asymptomatic people are also positive. It’s also important to do some amount of random testing in the clusters. You need to do lot more testing. The more you test, the more positives you get. Only redeeming feature is that the number of those getting into ICU or dying is not huge," she said.