India has ramped up testing since the 21-day lockdown began on March 25. This even as the number of cases reported in the country have increased.
According to ICMR’s 9 pm bulletin on April 4, a total of 79,950 samples have been tested and 3,113 individuals have been confirmed positive among suspected cases and contacts of known positive cases in India.
On 04 April 2020, till 9 pm, 11,182 samples were reported. Of these, 324 were tested positive. This is the most number of samples tested by ICMR so far.
Here are some state-wise numbers as of 11 am on April 5.
— Kerala has sent 9,744 samples for testing, out of which 8,586 have come back negative. Kerala has recorded 306 cases so far, with 50 recoveries and two deaths.
— Tamil Nadu tested 4,248 samples so far, with 485 testing positive. While 3.356 samples have come back negative, 407 samples are still under process. The state has recorded five deaths, while eight people have been discharged.
— Telangana and Andhra have not provided any new updates on samples tested. Telangana has 272 coronavirus cases and has recorded 11 deaths. Thirty-two people have recovered. In Andhra Pradesh, 226 cases of coronavirus have been recorded till date, 1 death and five recoveries.
— Karnataka has collected 5061 samples, with 144 samples testing positive and 4566 samples coming back negative. On April 4, the state collected a total of 400 samples out of which 304 came back negative. Till date, the state has recorded four COVID-19 deaths, while 11 persons have been discharged.
— Maharashtra has tested 14,503 samples, with 635 testing positive so far and 13,717 samples testing negative. The state has recorded 32 deaths so far, while 52 people have recovered and have been discharged.
While public health experts have called for wider testing to check for the spread of community transmission, the Indian Council of Medical Research’s (ICMR) guidelines limit testing to only certain categories. These are - those who have international travel history and are symptomatic, those who have contact history with a confirmed COVID-19 case and have symptoms of the virus, healthcare workers who are symptomatic, patients hospitalised with Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) and a direct or high-risk contact of a confirmed COVID-19 case, who can be symptomatic or asymptomatic.
Presently, only the RT-PCR or the reverse transmission polymerase chain reaction test can detect the presence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. ICMR, however, has as of April 2 allowed places that are hotspots (high number of cases) to test using the rapid antibody kits, which can deliver results within 30-45 minutes as opposed to 24 hours that an RT-PCR test. However, a positive result by the rapid antibody test will have to be further tested by the RT-PCR test to confirm for the novel coronavirus. ICMR advises those with a negative result by the rapid antibody test to be home quarantined.