India now has the fourth highest number of active coronavirus cases globally after the United States, Brazil and Russia. But four of the five states with the highest number of active cases in India have reported a dip in testing.
The five states of Maharashtra, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and West Bengal between them account for over two-third of active cases in India, i.e. cases excluding deaths and recoveries. Maharashtra alone makes up for more than one-third of India’s 1,33,632 active cases.
All the five states have reported a rise in test positivity rate (TPR), i.e. the share of cases that turn out positive in comparison to total tests conducted. But except for Tamil Nadu, the other four have reported a dip in testing.
Capital Delhi now has the highest TPR in India, surpassing even Maharashtra, the worst affected state due to coronavirus. One in every four clinical tests has turned out positive in Delhi, compared to one in every five tests in Maharashtra.
The TPR in Delhi jumped to 25 per cent on June 9 from 15 per cent just a week earlier, according to state government data analysed by India Today Data Intelligence Unit (DIU).
In Maharashtra, the TPR rose by only one percentage point, from 19 per cent to 20 per cent, in the last one week. But the seven-day moving average shows that daily testing has dropped 7 per cent from 14,397 on May 29 to 13,421 as on June 9.
Nationally, TPR has hovered around the 7 per cent mark for the last week.
In Tamil Nadu, the third worst-hit state in terms of active cases, almost one in every 10 coronavirus tests has turned positive in the last one week. However, the seven-day moving average shows a 25 per cent increase in testing in the same period from 12,223 to 15,248.
The fourth and fifth worst affected states with active cases, Gujarat and West Bengal, have reported a TPR of over 8 per cent and 4 per cent respectively. These states have reported a nominal drop in testing.
As of June 10, India conducted 50,61,332 tests and reported a total of 2,76,583 confirmed cases, including 1,33,632 active cases, 1,35,206 recoveries and 7,745 deaths.
On Wednesday, Tamil Nadu reported the highest number of active cases in the past 24 hours at 866, compared to 1,017 a day before. Delhi reported 831 active cases in the same period, followed by Maharashtra (476), Haryana (349) and Bengal (207).
Last week, the Delhi government issued new guidelines on testing, according to which only those showing Covid-19 symptoms were to be tested. This was against national guidelines wherein family members and healthcare workers exposed to a Covid-19 patient are also tested even if asymptomatic.
Under Delhi’s new guidelines, only asymptomatic patients with high-risk diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and cancer, and senior citizens exposed to a confirmed case were to be tested.
But Delhi’s lieutenant-governor Anil Baijal later reversed the order, and tests in the Capital will now be conducted on parameters set by the Indian Council of Medical Research. Baijal had warned that not testing asymptomatic contacts of Covid-19 patients could lead to further spread of the disease.