The daily number of COVID-19 tests conducted in the Capital decreased by 39% from June 2 to June 8, according to daily health bulletins released by the Delhi government.
The number of tests decreased from 6,070 on June 2 to just 3,700 on Monday. However, according to the June 9 bulletin, the number of daily tests conducted was 5,464 — showing signs of picking up.
When contacted, a Delhi government spokesperson said: “Delhi has the highest tests per million [12,714] in the whole country and Tamil Nadu [7,834], is a distant second. This looks like a momentary drop.”
Govt. order
On June 2, the Delhi government had issued an order which limited the scope of people who could be tested for COVID-19.
The order was overturned by the L-G on Monday. The June 2 order had said that only direct and high-risk contacts of a COVID-19 patient can be tested for the virus, whereas the Indian Council of Medical Research guidelines had said that all “asymptomatic” direct and high-risk contacts of a positive patient can be tested.
The Delhi government had omitted “asymptomatic” people in its order for testing protocol.
Private lab tests
Last week, the Delhi government had also asked seven private labs and one National Centre for Disease Control lab not to collect samples themselves and do COVID-19 testing, as they were allegedly not adhering to ICMR guidelines.
Seven of these labs were allowed to resume operations on Monday and Tuesday, said the spokesperson.
“The number of tests done depends on many factors. The tests can be less if there is a delay in results or some labs are reducing testing due to the workload. Don’t consider such a small time period, look at the full picture,” the spokesperson said.
“The number of tests has reduced due to the order by the Delhi government to not test asymptomatic contacts of positive patients and also stopping testing at different labs. Now, the testing will definitely pick up as the order has been withdrawn,” said Delhi Medical Association vice-president Ajay Bedi.