Covid tests, cases see fall
The Sunday bug hit Covid19 testing yet again in Telangana, resulting in what appears to be an improbable and steep drop in new cases. The state health department reported that Telangana recorded 1,801 new Covid19 cases on Sunday, a steep fall from the 2,982 reported on Saturday. However, this drop in cases corresponded with an equally drastic fall in the number of tests done on both days – 61,053 on Sunday, compared to 1,00,677 on Saturday – as per the official data released in the
Covid-19 bulletin by the department.
Even more improbable was the sudden reporting on Sunday of cases in single digits from five districts, which the day before had cases in their double digits.
The data released by the health department indicated that testing on Sunday was extremely poor in Nalgonda district which on Saturday reported 190 cases, which fell to
45 on Sunday. Similar falls, indicating very low testing on the day were recorded from eight other districts - Suryapet, Siddipet, Peddapalli, Mahbubabad, Mahbubnagar, Khammam, Karimnagar, and BhadradriKothagudem – which reported significant reduction in cases from three figures to double digits over the two days.
Though the trend over the past two weeks in Telangana has been a slow reduction in daily cases, the drop on Sunday, reflects a steady pattern and clearly establishes a link between testing and finding new Covid-19 cases. For instance, last Sunday, on May 23, only
42,526 tests were conducted with 2,242 new cases being reported, compared to the 63,120 tests and 3,308 positive cases on May 22. When testing rose to
59,709 the following Monday on May 24, so did the cases to 3,043.