The section on pending samples shows that on a daily basis, over 2,300 samples collected by the Delhi government remained pending at various labs between June 1 and 9.
Delhi’s daily testing figures continue to remain below the sanctioned capacity of 8,600, even as the city’s positivity rate — that is the number of people testing positive for Covid-19 against the total tests conducted — for the first half of June is 26.24%, up from 17.56% recorded towards the last leg of May.
According to the state government’s submission in the Delhi High Court Thursday, the combined daily testing capacity of 40 labs, 17 public and 23 private, is 8,600 per day.
The daily average of samples tested between June 1 and June 9 was 4,853. The daily testing figures are: 5,368 on June 1; 6,088 on June 2; 5,614 on June 3; 5,270 on June 4; 5,158 on June 5; 4,271 on June 6; 3,097 on June 7; 4,325 on June 8; 4,670 on June 9.
Although Delhi’s tests per million rank among the highest in the country at 13,446, the High Court has observed that all private hospitals in Delhi, which are equipped with a lab to undertake Covid-19 test, “be permitted to do testing, without any further loss of time”, in light of the increase in cases.
As of June 11, Delhi has 34,687 cases. It had first conducted over 4,000 tests in mid-May.
Numbers sourced from the Health Department show that between May 23-31, 42,833 tests were conducted, with a positivity rate of 17.56%. Between June 1-9, 43,681 tests were conducted with a positivity rate of 26.24%.
The section on pending samples shows that on a daily basis, over 2,300 samples collected by the Delhi government remained pending at various labs between June 1 and 9. The pending rate of samples collected by private labs was not immediately available.
On June 2, the Delhi government had decided to stop testing asymptomatic direct and high-risk contacts of confirmed cases. L-G Anil Baijal struck this down on June 8.
Subsequently, the state government issued an order directing all labs to stick to ICMR guidelines.
The overall positivity rate stands at 12.77%, with 2,71,516 tests throwing up 34,687 cases until June 11.