Telangana tests only 225 samples daily; Andhra 9k
THE CUMULATIVE NUMBER OF SAMPLES TESTED AS ON MAY 16 WAS 23,388, INCLUDING THAT OF 947 MALE POSITIVE, 14,256
MALE NEGATIVE, 566 FEMALE POSITIVE
AND 7619 FEMALE NEGATIVE CASES
HYDERABAD: At a time when Andhra Pradesh has been conducting an average of 9,000 tests for Covid-19 every day, the number of samples being tested in the neighbouring state Telangana has been only an average of 225 samples a day. Telangana tests 664 people per million while the country tests 1,660 people per million.
This came to light on Sunday when the Telangana medical and health department officials disclosed the data analytics of testing as on May 16 to explain the gender and age distribution among the positive cases.
According to G Srinivasa Rao, director of medical and health, Telangana government, the cumulative number of samples tested as on May 16 was 23,388, including that of 947 male positive, 14,256 male negative, 566 female positive and 7619 female negative cases. The last time the department released the figures of cumulative number of tests done in the state was on April 28, when the health minister addressed a press conference and disclosed that 19,303 tests were conducted till then. Taking into account the latest figures of 23,388 samples tested, the tests conducted between April 28 and May 16 was 4085 – an average of 226 cases per day.
A statement from the office of Telangana health minister Eatala Rajender said the number of tests conducted as on May 14 was 22,842. It means 546 tests were done in a span of 48 hours – an average of 273 per day, showing a slight improvement. The first Covid-19 case was reported in Telangana on March 2 and it was only after March 15 that the government released figures about the number of samples tested – 764 on March 24, when Tablighi Jamaat episode pushed the number up. After that the government stopped releasing the data. The health minister has been refusing to divulge the data stating that the number of positive cases that were detected in the testing, rather than the number of samples being tested, was a parameter for the spread of the virus.
As on Sunday evening, 1551 positive cases and 34 deaths were reported in Telangana; of them, 525 cases are still active. “We do not want to do indiscriminate testing...we have been conducting tests as per the ICMR guidelines only on those having genuine symptoms and also with comorbid conditions, apart from those who had been the primary contacts of the positive cases,” Rajender said. He added, “Each test costs around ~5,000 and we do not want the people to be fleeced.”
In Andhra Pradesh, however, the testing of samples has been stepped up in the last one month, after the state health department began using Trunat rapid testing kits, besides RT-PCR testing.
Meanwhile, Telangana high court, while hearing a public interest litigation petition, on Monday observed that the number of tests in the state was low and suggested to the government to step up testing by introducing mobile testing. It asked the state government to submit the details of testing in the state and posted the case to May 26 for hearing.