Rate of positivity of Covid-19 testing in Colombia Positividad y proporción para muestras por COVID-19 en Colombia

Abstract

Introduction: since the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in Wuhan, China, on December 2019, the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) disease has been spreading worldwide. This disease is caused by a novel coronavirus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. Objective: to describe the positive rate of SARS-CoV-2 testing. Methodology: this research focused in PCR processing for COVID-19, using the information collected by the National Institute of Health, over the period between March 6 and October 31 2020. Results: we evidenced that the day in which the greatest number of samples were taken was 24-07-2020, with 41.550, followed by 40.034 samples taken on 23-07-2020, and 39.228 on 22-07-2020. The highest number of tests returning a positive result was reported on 21-07-2020 with 12.160, followed by 11.983 on 23-07-2020, and 11.879 on 29-07-2020. Likewise, the highest positive rate of 0.33 was evidenced on 19-07-2020, followed by 0.32 on 09-08-2020 and 0.31 on 30-08-2020. Conclusion: we must continue on the active search to identify infected people through conducting more PCR, and viral and molecular antigen tests, the latter offering a high level of accuracy, at the healthcare facilities (EPSs), which accelerate timely reporting to people.