advertisement
Video Editor: Varun Sharma
The number of coronavirus cases in India is now rising exponentially, but are we testing enough?
By 10 April, India, which has a population of 1.3 billion people, had not test even 1.5 lakh citizens. Uttar Pradesh. Bihar, West Bengal and Gujarat did not even test 10,000 people in their state.
By 10 April, the number of positive cases of coronavirus crossed 6,000 mark, of which over 200 people have lost their lives. Some believe that we are doing better than China and the US, but the question is, should we declare victory over coronavirus without conducting enough tests?
When the testing speed was increased after a delay of two months, the numbers were very different. By 1 April, there were over 1,600 cases, 38 of them had died. By 10 April, the health ministry website showed over 6,000 positives cases of coronavirus and more than 200 deaths.
Countries that were late in testing its people are suffering the most, like the US. In the US, by 10 April, over 16,000 people have lost their lives and more than four lakh people are coronavirus positive. Despite being a superpower, the delay in conducting test by the US resulted in a huge loss of human lives.
With over 1,200 case, Maharashtra has most number of coronavirus positive patients. This is only because it has tested over 26,000 people. States like Rajasthan, Kerala and Delhi are conducting more tests while Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, West Bengal and Karnataka have tested least. Bihar, which has a population of around 10 crore, is testing less than 500 people and has only four test centres.
These numbers tell us that the rate at which people are being tested in India is not enough especially when there are people with no symptoms being tested coronavirus positive. If India wants to win the fight against coronavirus, it has to increase the number of tests and testing centres.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)