Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu challenge to management

New Delhi: Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu are posing a tough challenge to India's Covid-19 management as the test positivity rate of these three states is showing a sharp increase in less than a fortnight. Test positivity rate refers to the proportion of positive cases out of the total number of tests conducted. A higher test positivity rate indicates a faster spread of infection. The latest statistics of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) show that Maharashtra has the highest test positivity rate of 11.5%, which has more than doubled in a month, from 5.4% on April 17.

The state’s high test positivity rate is largely because of cases in Mumbai. The state’s average was 7.2% on May 4 and was lower than that of Delhi. Gujarat, which has the second highest number of confirmed cases after Maharashtra and a higher fatality rate, has a test positivity rate of 7.7%, as compared to 6.9% when the cases were just rising on May 4. Delhi’s test positivity rate is also towards the higher side at 7.1%, which is almost the same as May 4 when it was 7.3%. Tamil Nadu, which is the third state after Maharashtra and Gujarat to cross the 10,000-mark of Covid-19 cases, has also seen the rate increasing from under 1% in April to 3.3% in May.

The national average has, so far, remained between 3% and 5% since the outbreak despite the number of tests being conducted daily rising from 32,167 tests on April 17 to 90,927 tests on May 17. Despite an almost three times increase, the test positivity rate is almost the same. On April 17, the all-India national average was 4.2% and on May 17 it is about 4%. Since May 13, India has been conducting over 90,000 tests daily. On May 13, India had tested record numbers at 94,671 tests, followed by 92,791 tests the following day and 92,911 tests on May 15.