NEW DELHI: An analysis of the number of samples tested for COVID-19 with number of positive cases has disclosed that both have not increased proportionally.
While at first, nearly 25,000 samples were tested leading to 581 confirmed cases till March 25, an additional same number of samples resulted into sharp jump of 1,637 cases till April 1.
Indian Council of Medical Research received flak for not increasing testing. Subsequently, it invited manufacturers to supply timeline and capacity available for COVID-19 testing kits that are approved by ICMR or international authorities.
Thereafter, private laboratories were authorized to conduct tests and more government hospitals were also included in the list and more number of samples taken for testing. While till April 1, nearly 47,951 samples were tested, April 3 witnessed an addition of nearly 22,000 samples and the number of confirmed cases went up from 1,637 to 2,653 cases in two days — a rise of over 1,000 cases.
Analysis showed that number of positive cases spiked with respect to same number of samples tested as the period has increased. Like, over 25,000 samples were tested between April 5 and April 7 and the number of positive cases of COVID-19 jumped by nearly 1,100 number.
The above analysis has made this clear that while there has been continuous rise in the number of confirmed cases, but, similar number of samples did not give number of positive cases in similar proportion. Like, 30,000 of samples gave 1100 positive cases (between April 7 and 9), but, nearly half 16,000 tests (April 9 and 10) gave nearly 1, 200 positive cases.