Rajasthan has the lowest seven-day average COVID-19 testing rate followed by West Bengal, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.
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Kerala is in the news for reporting the highest number of COVID-19 cases for the past several days. The state, however, is leading in the testing rate among larger states with a seven-day average of 4,587 tests per million. Rajasthan has the lowest testing rate with 378 tests per million followed by West Bengal, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, which have below 1,000 tests per million, data shows, The Times of India reported. Kerala’s seven-day figure for the week ending August 1 is 1.6 lakh tests. Testing methods include routine samples, CBNAAT, TrueNat, antigen and others. Kerala continues to report a huge number of COVID-19 cases and high test positivity rate. On Monday, August 2, the state reported 13,984 cases. However, the fourth sero-survey by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) found that Kerala detected the most number of cases in all of India, which implied that the state has the least underreporting of COVID-19 cases. In Kerala one in every six cases is detected as opposed to Uttar Pradesh which underreports the most with only one in 98 cases detected. According to the ToI report, most of the relatively larger states had an average of less than 3,000 tests per million with Assam and Delhi being exceptions at 3,563 and 3,336 tests respectively. Among states with a population of less than a crore, Mizoram reported the highest seven-day average testing rate at 4,916 per million on Sunday, August 1. This is slightly higher than Kerala’s figure. The present testing rates in most states are low when compared to the highest levels they reached in the past, though states like Kerala are at their highest or close, as per the data. Most states are conducting more tests than they did before the second wave, though the testing has declined from the levels achieved during the first week of June. The current average is less than 2,000 tests per million in 14 large states. Bihar’s testing rate is as low as 1,196 and while for Uttar Pradesh it is 1,052. For smaller states like Goa, Sikkim and Tripura, the testing rate was between 2,000 and 3,000 while it was between 1,500 and 2,000 tests per million for Manipur and Meghalaya. In Kerala, the seropositivity – the percentage of population with antibodies after being infected by the virus – is low at 44.4% compared to the national average of about 70%. This means that Kerala still has the least number of people infected by the virus, according to the ICMR analysis. Senior virologist Gagandeep Kang in an interview to Karan Thapar for the Wire said that Kerala’s “smart testing “strategy helped control the transmission of the disease. Read: Kerala has sensible strategy for COVID-19 but can’t relax now: Virologist Gagandeep Kang
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