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| LETTER TO EDITOR |
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| Year : 2020 | Volume
: 34
| Issue : 3 | Page : 178 |
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Number of COVID-19 test and positive rate: Is there any relationship?
Rujittika Mungmungpuntipantip1, Viroj Wiwanitkit2
1 Private Academic Practice, Bangkok, Thailand
2 Department of community medicine, Dr DY Patil University, Pune, Maharashtra, India
| Date of Submission | 25-Sep-2020 |
| Date of Acceptance | 06-Mar-2021 |
| Date of Web Publication | 29-Apr-2021 |
Correspondence Address:
Rujittika Mungmungpuntipantip
Private Academic Practice, Bangkok
Thailand
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/jms.jms_99_20
How to cite this article:
Mungmungpuntipantip R, Wiwanitkit V. Number of COVID-19 test and positive rate: Is there any relationship?. J Med Soc 2020;34:178 |
Sir,
COVID-19 is an important global problem at present. There is a continuous increasing of number of patients and there has already been more than 31 million patients since its first emergence. The number of infection varies in different countries. It is usually an interesting query when there is a significant low incidence of COVID-19 in some countries. The poor diagnosis and surveillance system as well as poor transparency in public health policies might be explanations for unbelievable incidences.[1] Nevertheless, the cost of the test is not cheap and it is an important consideration for appropriate use of COVID-19 test.[2] The clinical practice guidelines have to be used as direction for practitioner in each setting. However, some local experts usually claimed that there is a need for increased the number of COVID-19 test for increasing the positive detection.
Here, the authors try to answer an interesting question, is there any relationship between number of COVID-19 test and positive rate: The authors retrospectively analyze the data on number of COVID-19 test and positive rate from 10 different countries around the world that are affected by COVID-19 (data on April 2020) [Table 1]. It can show that there is no significant correlation between number of COVID-19 test and positive rate. Therefore, the claim that it is necessary to increase the number of COVID-19 as an active disease screening is not acceptable. The standard appropriate use of COVID-19 based on indication is still the important issue for present clinical practice during COVID-19 pandemic. | Table 1: Data on number of COVID-19 test and positive rate from 10 different
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Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
| References | |  |
| 1. | Wiwanitkit V. Editorial: “No case” as case study, a focus on COVID-19. Case Study Case Rep 2020;10:22-3.  |
| 2. | Mungmungpuntipantip R, Wiwanitkit V. RT-PCR Tests for COVID-19: Observation on Use and Cost. Clin Lab. 2020;66. doi: 10.7754/Clin.Lab.2020.200461. |
[Table 1]
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