Data: How south Indian states have been testing for COVID-19

Although India has nearly doubled the number of tests since the previous week, the numbers are underwhelming when compared to other countries.
Data: How south Indian states have been testing for COVID-19
Data: How south Indian states have been testing for COVID-19
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India’s strategy for testing COVID-19 has come under a lot of criticism over the past few weeks. While India has expanded its guidelines to include asymptomatic high-risk or direct contacts of a COVID-19 patient and those hospitalised with severe acute respiratory illness, public health experts say that testing needs to be aggressively scaled up. This would help detect cases of community transmission and help contain its spread, experts argue.   

As of March 30, India has collected 38,442 samples overall, according to the statistics from the Union Health Ministry. That’s 31.74 people tested for COVID-19 per million population.  And although India has nearly doubled the number of tests since the previous week (20,707 samples), the numbers are underwhelming when compared to other nations. According to Scroll.in, Singapore’s testing rate was 6800 per million people, South Korea at 6148 per million people, while the US, which now has the most number of COVID-19 cases in the world, was at 314 per million people.

TNM looked at how the south Indian states have been testing since March 9. 

Kerala, which reported the first COVID-19 case on January 30, has collected 6991 samples as of March 30, accounting for 18% of the total tests in India. From 24.1 people tested for COVID-19 per million population on March 9, Kerala has grown to 209.38 per million people.   

The state, which has 234 cases so far, has recorded 2 deaths while 20 people have recovered, according to the state health department.  

*Based on March 24 bulletin. 

Karnataka, like many other states, has ramped up testing in the past two weeks. The state, which has 98 positive cases till date, has a testing rate of 53.05 per million people as of March 30. Karnataka has collected 3243 samples, according to the state health department, compared to 432 samples collected on March 9. Out of the 98 cases, Karnataka has recorded 3 COVID-19 deaths, while six persons have recovered. 

Compared to its southern neighbours, Tamil Nadu’s scale of testing has been weak. While it was at a meagre 0.87 per million people on March 9, Tamil Nadu has tested 28.72 people for COVID-19 per million population as on March 30, with 2040 samples collected. However, testing for COVID-10 has increased nearly four times between March 23 and March 30. Tamil Nadu has recorded 74 COVID-19 cases, and one death. Five people have made recoveries, according to the official release.  

It is unclear how many samples Telangana has tested till date, as its health bulletins have made no mention of this cumulative data for a few days. On March 24, Telangana had collected 764 samples, which is 21.82 per million people. The state witnessed a push in the number of tests between March 16 and March 23, with a 194% increase. Telangana has 77 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and has reported six deaths as of March 31.  

*Based on March 24 bulletin. 

 
At 584, Andhra Pradesh has collected the lowest number of samples compared to the other south states. That just 11.75 people tested for COVID-19 per million population as of March 30.  

Andhra has the lowest number of COVID-19 cases among the southern states with 40 people testing positive so far, and no deaths. However, the lower number of cases may be on account of the lower number of samples collected. 

As on March 30, Maharashtra, collected 4096 samples. That’s 36.45 people tested for COVID-19 per million population. However, the state saw a huge increase in testing in a span of 24 hours, with Maharashtra collecting 6331 samples. That would amount to 56.33 people tested for COVID-19 per million population as of March 31. The state as of Tuesday has recorded 302 positive cases of coronavirus - the highest in the country. It has reported 10 deaths due to COVID-19 . 

New Delhi has a testing rate of 129.30 people per million, having collected 2168 samples as of March 30. 

Testing rate for south states 

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