NEW DELHI: States seem to have taken the surge in coronavirus infections seriously with tests for Covid-19 going up by more than 38% over the last two weeks compared to the first half of March. Countrywide, the total samples tested have gone up from 97.89 lakh between March 1-14 to 1.35 crore during March 14-27.
Maharashtra, where the positivity rate (confirmed cases/100 tests) has already climbed to 21.4%, testing went up to 16.75 lakh during the last two weeks (March 14-27), one of the highest in the country, as against 11.70 lakh it had conducted in the first half of March.
Uttar Pradesh with 16.43 lakh tests during the last two weeks ranked second, followed by Karnataka (12.11 lakh), Delhi (10.27 lakh), Tamil Nadu (9.77 lakh) and Gujarat (8.61 lakh).
When measured as total tests conducted per million population, Delhi continues to hold the first position with 7.3 lakh tests/million, followed by Kerala (3.71 lakh/ million), Karnataka (3.22 lakh), Andhra Pradesh (2.87 lakh), Telangana (2.70 lakh) and Tamil Nadu (2.56 lakh).
Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Punjab rank lower in the order with 1.5-2 lakh tests per million, registered till Tuesday.
At 94,000 tests/million, West Bengal scores one of the lowest among states and Union Territories.
The Centre has emphasised that the ‘T3 mantra’— Testing, Tracing and Treating — emphasised by the Centre can not only bring down infections but also the fatality rate.
Besides Maharashtra, which has reported more than half of all the Covid-19 cases in the country in the last few days, Punjab, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Chhattisgarh and Haryana are showing rapid increase in cases.
In the last two weeks, between March 14-27, the positivity rate in Punjab has crossed 7%; it’s 6.6% in Goa, 6% in Madhya Pradesh and almost 5% in Puducherry.