After 8 days, Noida finally releases testing data

Noida: The district administration provided testing data for Covid-19 on Monday after a gap of eight days. The last time it released numbers was on May 17, when 31 cases were reported, raising questions about the number of tests being done daily.
According to sources, while private testing has increased, the number of government tests has reduced substantially. Also, even amongst primary contacts, only those with symptoms are being tested now. Many in home quarantine are being tested after 14 days, with authorities expecting negative results, the sources added.
The health department on Monday said it has collected 10,222 samples so far, including 199 sent to government labs and 144 to private labs in the past 24 hours. The district had reported 4,738 samples taken till March 16 and 8,254 on March 18, which included several corporate testing by Oppo, Vivo and other companies.
“About 4,867 per million samples have been taken for testing. Comparing it with the national average of 2,333 per million, (it) clearly shows the enormous number of testing done and the strong surveillance system here. The district’s positivity rate is 3.5% as compared to the national 7%,” the department said. It did not give data on daily samples collected from May 19 to 24.
Data shows that 1,968 samples have been taken in the past seven days at an average of 281 samples collected every day, including private and government labs. Health department sources, however, said Oppo alone had conducted over 3,000 tests. The claims of reaching a target of over 300 samples daily is being achieved owing to private tests. Government samples on their own don’t exceed 100-150.
This can be seen from the reports received daily from labs. While there are three government labs at GIMS, NIB and Child PGI and two private ones, the total reports received daily from the first three are not more than 100-150. There isn’t much backlog either, say officials, and the reports are received are being received on time.
Only 66 reports were received from GIMS and NIB on May 19, 36 on May 20, 66 on May 21, 72 on May 22 and 246 from the three government labs on May 23, raising questions over testing.
Officials say that ICMR guidelines are being followed. “The 10,000-plus tests are just the reports we have received. There are several others pending and will be added soon,” said district magistrate Suhas LY.