HYDERABAD: Community-level check or contact tracing for Covid-19 remains suspended since mass vaccination for the viral disease had been carried out across the province.

The tests are now being done at private laboratories as district health authorities confirm they are no longer conducting PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests. The Diagnostic and Research Laboratory (DRL) at Liaquat University Hospital Hyderabad being run by Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS) was the first facility in public sector in lower Sindh which started conducting the PCR test in March 2020 after pandemic hit this region in February 2020.

`In fact, the testing came to an end when countrywide mass vaccination was carried out,` said Sindh Assembly member Q asim Siraj Soomro in an answer to a query over phone on Monday.

`We will, however, be looking at thesituation in a couple of days at government level and come up with a decision, he said.

Director General Health Services Sindh Dr Juman Bahoto said that community or contact tracing was not under way anywhere.

Hyderabad District Health Officer (DHO) Dr Lala Jaffar said that rapid tests were conducted through kits only for the suspects arrested by police and remanded in judicial custody as per court directives. `Their tests are done before they are sent to jail,` he said.

Otherwise, he added, the PCR tests had been stopped everywhere.

According to Sindh government`s daily situation report, 9,140,263 PCR tests had been done till March 25 since March 2020. 508 tests were reported between March 25 and 26, taking the PCR tests` tally to 9,140,771 till March 26.

Total Covid-19 positive cases till March 25 stood at 592,499 and 40 cases were reported between March 25 and 26 till 8am. The figures showed that 8,260deaths were reported since the pandemic`s outbreak till March 26, 823 patients remained in home isolation while 17 patients were under treatment, one of them was on ventilator. 840 cases were under treatment province-wide.

Official details showed that during last seven days positivity ratio was reported at 7.51pc in Karachi between March 20 and 26. In Hyderabad, only eight patients were tested and reported positive. Two cases reported positive in rest of Sindh. This indicates 100pc positivity in Hyderabad in last seven days.

The tests were arranged by patients on their own at a laboratory.

A total number of 583,439 patients recovered from the disease. `Mass testing and screening have come to halt anywhere. A meeting had been planned to review the situation and take decisions accordingly, said Soomro.

He was of the view that tests, more or less, were now done privately in the province because contact tracing was not conducted anywhere in the country.

According to Dr Bahoto, 100pc vacci-nation was done in the province and such high level of coverage created immunity even for unvaccinated population.

`Secondly, large-scale testing is not being done now but Karachi is witnessing testing for Covid-19 virus,` he remarked. Presently, he explained, magnitude and severity did not warrant community level testing right. `But if need be, we [health department] will be going for it,` he said.

A professor of medicine in Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS) and noted physician, Dr Imran Sheikh said that number of unvaccinated suspected cases was low.

He disclosed that antigen tests done if multiple symptoms were involved with some co-morbidity in any suspected Covid-19 case and then he was advised such PCR test which was done in private or government laboratory of LUMHS.

Major laboratories that conducted tests during pandemic and onwards were located in Jacobabad, Larkana, Nawabshah, Hyderabad and Karachi, leading to over 9.1m PCR tests.