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What should be the ideal number of tests conducted for Coronavirus? Read on to know.

There have been a series of complaints against the fact that India isn’t conducting sufficient numbers of tests to detect coronavirus infected patients. People are concerned that the actual number of tests conducted is too low than what is required.

Whereas, the government has assured to level up the number of tests and is targeting to increase the number of daily tests from 30,000 to 1 lakh. But, for this to happen the various labs conducting the tests need to work double shifts.

The head scientist from the Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases-I (ECD-I), Division of ICMR, Dr. RR Gangakhedkar said that India can test 42,418 samples in a 9-hour shift at its labs.

Also, there have been positive developments related to the receiving of the delayed shipment of about 5 lakh kits from China. These kits were expected to arrive 10 days before. 

Further, another consignment of 6.5 lakh testing kits are expected to arrive soon. And now India needs more and more of these kits to conduct rapid testing.

The reason stated for the delay is the diversion of a part of the order to the US and unsatisfactory quality of the other part.

Whatever be the reason, this has surely held back India from conducting ample amounts of tests.

What should be the ideal number of tests, given the huge population of 130 crores?

As of Thursday, India has conducted 3.02 lakh samples for coronavirus. Whereas if we compare this figure with the United States, they have conducted 32.5 lakh tests despite having a population of 33 crores.

The World Health Organization could not have stressed more on the importance of testing. It has been the mantra right from the start that only a sufficient number of tests can help us fight this virus.

The reason that the United States has reported such a large number of tests is because they practiced rapid testing. Whereas, in India, Mumbai alone has about 15% of the total number of positive cases.

Also, one can’t oversee the fact that it has conducted the most number of tests, even more than a few states. In addition to this, the Delhi model is also an example of testing more and finding more. 

The global standard has been to observe the tests per million of the population. Countries like Germany, Italy, South Korea, and the United States have conducted more tests than the rest.

The before-list doesn’t include The Republic of China because it has not been transparent with the actual number of tests conducted.

If we talk of actual figures then, Germany has tested more than 15,700 people per million, Italy over 14,000, whereas South Korea and the US about 10,500 and 10,000 respectively.

Whereas, India on this scale has so far conducted 211 tests per million of the population. 

What is the Indian side of the story?

However, data can be interpreted in various ways. The ICMR, which is the leading body for test conduction, has come up with a justification for the testing scenario in the country.

It says that India is conducting far more tests for every positive case detected as compared to other countries. In other words, for every infected person, India has conducted tests on 24 samples.

Going on this parameter, Japan comes next with 11.7 tests per infected person. Whereas, Taly and the US fall far behind with 6.7 and 5.3 samples being tested for every contaminated individual. 

The ideal scenario would be to conduct tests on every individual in the country but with the limitations on the number of kits available, this is not possible.

Commenting on this, the OSD to Odisha health department, Mr. Somesh Upadhyay has tweeted the estimated cost if India decides to go with a full-fledged testing activity.

The cost, as estimated, would amount to Rs 6,300 billion which is analogous to 3.3 percent of the GDP.

Few countries like South Korea have made the tests available for everyone but here in India, only those showing flu-like symptoms are allowed to take tests. But selective places like Mumbai and Delhi have begun random testing.

The Indian strategy to fight the virus has been different from what the WHO has suggested. WHO has given the formula of “test, trace and treat”, whereas India has adopted the principle of “trace, test and treat”. 

Another way to determine the situation of the Coronavirus pandemic in a country is to determine the positive cases per unit population. As per the report of the New York Times, the United States has 204 positive cases per lakh population.

Whereas countries like Spain, Italy, and Germany stand at 396, 280, and 161. When seen in this perspective India stands at a mere 1 positive case per unit population with Mainland China at six.

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