Lav Agarwal said India is following protocol and is 100 per cent transparent
The government has denied that the actual number of coronavirus cases in India is being underreported or suppressed, as suggested by experts who have voiced concerns about low testing.
The number of coronavirus cases in India is 147, the health ministry has said. Three persons have died.
"As far as India is concerned, we are 100% transparent. We are following protocol," said Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary at the Health Ministry.
"We don't want to create panic. We don't want to just test people for the sake of testing. We are constantly updating number of cases within an hour," he said.
Many have expressed concern that the numbers in India, the world's second most populous country after China, are relatively low as there is less testing because of inadequate facilities. Some experts have talked about the protocol on tested missing the possibility of community transmission. In India, those who have a cold, cough or fever but no travel history or no contact with travelers, are not tested.
The health ministry said under the guidelines of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), laboratory tests should be only offered when prescribed by a qualified physician.
The ministry also said ICMR, the government's main medical research body, had recommended that private laboratories offer COVID-19 testing free of cost. Currently, the cost of the first step screening is Rs 1,500 and additional confirmatory test is Rs 3,000.
On the World Health Organisation (WHO) urging all countries to "test, test, test", ICMR Director General Balram Bhargava said: "The WHO criteria is not country-specific. The WHO office in India told us that it is not a statement for a country like India which does not have community transmission. It applies to countries like those in Europe. We do not want to do indiscriminate testing."
Experts have suggested the South Korea model; it has done over two lakh tests and is conducting nearly 15,000 tests each day.
Another top ICMR official, Raman R Gangakhedkar, said it was "not practical to carry out tests at South Korea's scale."
He also said private labs could not be allowed to test as it would be harder to trace contacts then.
India has tested 11,500 samples since 21st January at the rate of 500-700 each day.
To questions on India not scaling up testing, Dr Gangakhedkar said, "We say we have about 112 positive patients. But our population base is 135 crore. So how many will I test? How will I do it? If we open it completely to all private labs then also it is cause for worry. Secondly, say I tell everybody to get tested. The worst will be that some will get tested, but after the test is positive, they won't isolate themselves. For fear, they may not tell others. They will hide the reports. Now what will I do with them? I can't do anything, because I don't know."