Covid-19: After facing flak, UP now ahead of Maharashtra, Delhi in conducting tests

Pradeep Thakur | TNN | Jul 22, 2020, 02:38 IST

AFP image used for representation

NEW DELHI: Uttar Pradesh has moved ahead of Maharashtra and Delhi — states with high caseloads — in conducting more tests for the novel coronavirus in the last two weeks. The top seven states that conducted the highest tests in the last two weeks are Tamil Nadu, UP, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Delhi, in that order.
Uttar Pradesh, which faced flak for low testing, has been increasing testing capacity every week. With a low positivity rate of 4% and total confirmed cases of 47,000 so far, UP has conducted 4 lakh tests in the last two weeks (July 2-15), behind TN’s 5 lakh tests. Tamil Nadu, which has been conducting the highest number of tests by any state, is at second spot when it comes to total cases (1.66 lakh), after Maharashtra’s 3 lakh. Delhi with 1.22 lakh cases, Karnataka (59,000) and Gujarat (47,476) are other states with more cases than UP.

However, in terms of total tests per million population, Delhi has an average of 41,000 tests, followed by Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu with around 25,000 tests each, Rajasthan 15,600 and Karnataka 15,000. Maharashtra and UP have the lowest tests per million at 12,500 and 6,300, respectively, among the top seven states though UP also has low incidence.
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Maharashtra, with a high positivity rate of 23% and highest number of confirmed cases, conducted 3.9 lakh tests in the last two weeks. Delhi, which managed to bring down its positivity rate from 30% to 15% by ramping up testing earlier, has brought down the number of its fortnightly tests from 2.48 lakh (till July 2) to 1.6 lakh (between July 2-15).
The top seven states in terms of testing also have high positivity rates ranging from 7% to 23%, except Rajasthan where it is 3%, lower than UP’s 4%. A high positivity rate is indicative that a state is testing fewer people and possibly only the sickest. The pandemic is reaching a worrisome stage with India’s overall positivity rate reaching 10% between July 2-15.