So far India has tested over 4,47,812 samples out of which 19,984 people were positive. By this, India has a testing ratio of more than 211 per million of its population. This figure is one of the lowest in the world.
In comparison, Germany is conducting 15,730 tests per million, Italy is conducting 14,114 per million, South Korea’s testing rate is 10,564 per million people.
ICMR has countered these reports of India’s low testing rates by claiming that the number of tests in India is more than other countries if we go by the parameter of the test conducted to detect one positive case.
India tested 24 samples for each positive case, case, whereas Japan conducts about 11.7, Italy conducts 6.7 and the USA and the UK conduct 5.3 and 3.4 respectively.
Currently, India is testing those people who have influenza-like symptoms, whereas, countries like Iceland and South Korea have offered it to anyone.
ICMR proposes to conduct one lakh test daily by conducting tests around the clock. However, this is only possible by May 31.
Currently, India has a shortage of rapid testing kits. Recently about 3 lakh kits were imported from China after a delay of about 10 days. The current requirement is about 1 crore.
As per the guidelines by WHO every country must test excessively in order to beat COVID-19 and that’s a lesson that India must learn.