India has doubled down on its testing since the lockdown was announced on March 24. The government announced guidelines for Lockdown 5.0 on Saturday, where containment zones will see the lockdown extended until June 30, while phases for reopening non-containment zones will begin from June 8.
According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a total of 37,37,027 samples had been tested as of 9 am on May 31. As per ICMR's bulletin, 1,25,428 samples were tested in 24 hours, from 9 am on May 30 to 9 am on May 31.
Here are the state-wise numbers as of 11 am on May 31:
> Andhra Pradesh has tested 3,63,378 samples out of which 3,59,917 were negative. As on May 31, the state has a total of 3,461 cases, with 2,281 recoveries and 60 deaths.
> Kerala has tested 65,002 samples so far and of these, 62,543 have returned negative. The state currently has 1,209 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 575 recoveries and 10 deaths.
> Tamil Nadu has tested 4,79,155 samples so far, with 21,184 people testing positive. 4,57,405 samples tested negative and results of 566 samples are awaited. A total of 12,000 patients have recovered and 161 patients have died due to the disease.
> Telangana had been providing sample numbers till April 30. However, the updated numbers since then are not known. A total of 2,499 people have tested positive so far, with 1412 recoveries. The state has recorded 77 deaths so far.
> Karnataka has tested 2,80,217 samples, with 2,922 people testing positive and 2,73,404 samples returning negative. The state has recorded 49 COVID-19 deaths, while 997 persons have recovered.
> Maharashtra has tested 4,33,557 samples, out of which 65,168 have tested positive. 2,197 people have died from the disease in the state, while 28,081 have recovered.
On May 18, the ICMR revised its strategy for COVID-19 testing. As per the new guideline, those with a history of international travel in the past 14 days, who show Influenza-like Illness (ILI) symptoms — acute respiratory infection with fever more than 38ºC coupled with cough — will be tested.
Considering that migrant workers and expatriates are returning to their native states, all returnees and migrants, who exhibit symptoms, will be tested within seven days of developing an illness.
Additionally, all asymptomatic direct and high-risk contacts of a confirmed case will be tested once between day 5 and 10 of coming into contact with a COVID-19 patient, unlike previously between day 5 and 14.
The other patients that will be tested include:
* Symptomatic contacts of laboratory-confirmed cases
* Symptomatic health care workers or frontline workers involved in containment and mitigation of the disease
* Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) patients
* Symptomatic individuals within hotspots and containment zones
* Hospitalised patients who develop symptoms
The ICMR has recommended that all testing be done only with real-time RT-PCR or the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction test. This test can detect the presence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
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