India Coronavirus numbers explained: 1 crore tests, but that’s still a low number

India Coronavirus Numbers: The number of samples tested for novel Coronavirus in India crossed the 10-million mark (1 crore) on Monday. While that, no doubt, is a significant milestone, India’s testing numbers are still low compared to many other countries.

China, whose number of infections has all but remain static at around 85,000, has carried out more than 90 million tests, according to data on the Worldometer website. The same database shows that the United States has tested more than 38 million samples, Russia has carried out more than 21 million tests, while even the United Kingdom, right now, is marginally ahead of India.

All these countries, however, began testing much earlier than India, because the outbreak started at least two months earlier there. In India, regular testing started happening only in the first week of March after the emergence of the first few cases. Starting with just one laboratory, the Pune-based National Institute of Virology, that was testing samples at that time, India now has a network of more than 1,100 laboratory that are conducting these diagnostic tests. More than two lakh samples are being tested every day now, compared to just a few hundred when the exercise had begun.

Yet, considering the large population, the penetration of testing is still quite low. There have been less than 7,400 tests per million population. This number in the United States is 115,449, according to the Worldometer database, and 62,814 for China, the only country with which India’s population can be compared. The actual number of people who have been tested would be lower, considering the fact that multiple tests are carried out on several people, and, at least during the earlier stage of the outbreak, an exit test was being conducted on everyone before they were being discharged.

Within the country, five states — Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh — account for half of the total checkup carried out (see box below). The top three states have conducted more than a million tests each, while Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh are also getting there. States like Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Bihar are among the laggards.

States with maximum tests:

On Monday, the total number of infections in India crossed the 7-lakh figure. Compared to the last few days, the number of new detections on Monday were slightly lower, about 22,250. Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, the two largest contributors of new cases, reported comparatively lesser numbers on Monday, but the surprise was Delhi, which reported just 1,379 new cases. The national capital was reporting new cases around this level about three weeks ago.

Top ten states with maximum caseload:

STATE TOTAL POSITIVE NEW CASES TOTAL RECOVERIES DEATHS

There was no let-up in Karnataka and Telangana, though, the two states that are growing at the fastest rate in the last few days. Karnataka reported 1,843 new cases while Telangana had 1,831.