Delhi Doing Fewer Tests As Coronavirus Cases Rise, Shows Government Data

There has been a sharp decline in coronavirus testing in Delhi since June, even though the cases have been surging. While the first week of June witnessed a 12 per cent drop in testing, there has been a 34 per cent increase in cases despite the low figures. Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain said in half of these cases, the source could not be traced -- which is the key yardstick of the virus passing into the third stage of transmission, known as community transmission.

Delhi is also apprehensive about a huge surge in cases in the coming weeks. Today, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said going by the current rate of doubling, which is 12 to 13 days, Delhi is likely to have more than 5 lakh cases of coronavirus by the end of July.
So far, the city has logged in more than 29,943 cases.

Under the circumstances, there are chances that low testing is giving an erroneous reading of the situation and the actual number of cases is even higher that the government suspects.

In the eight days between May 26 and June 1, Delhi tested 43,068 samples. The following week, between June 2 and June 8, only 38,078 samples were tested.

Over the last weeks, the Delhi government has been involved in a row with laboratories over the asymptomatic patients treated.

In its advisory of May 18, the Indian Council of Medical Research, the country's nodal body in the fight against coronavirus, said asymptomatic direct and high risk contacts of a confirmed case be tested once between Day 5 and Day 10 of coming in contact with the patient.

However, on June 2, the government said among the direct contacts of a coronavirus patient, only those who have chronic health issues like diabetes, hypertension, cancer and those who are senior citizens, be tested. The testing, the government said, should be done only once, between Day 5 and Day 10 of contact.

Since this order, the number of tests has sharply dropped. Hardly 5,000 tests have been conducted over the last three days, data from Delhi government shows.

Prior to the government order, there had been complaints that people were being turned away by hospitals, which said they did not have beds. The government -- which earlier said the city  has enough infrastructure to handle the spike in COVID-19 cases that might happen once the lockdown is eased – said the crunch happened as the asymptomatic patients were occupying the beds.

On Sunday, following the advice of five-member expert committee, the government said the hospitals it runs will be reserved only for the people of Delhi. The decision, though, was scrapped by Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, who said treatment "should not be denied to any patient on grounds of being a non-resident".

Today, Mr Sisodia said Delhi will need four times the beds it currently has to handle the surge in cases by July-end. "5.5 lakh COVID-19 cases are expected in Delhi by July 31. We will need 80,000 beds by then," he told reporters.