Three Karnataka districts under Centre scanner for low Covid-19 testing rates test higher than state average

Though the Centre has pulled up four Karnataka districts in a recent meeting -- Bengaluru Urban, Udupi, Kalaburagi and Belagavi -- for low tests per million, the state Covid-19 war room maintains that in the past 10 days Udupi and Bengaluru Urban have the highest tests per million rates in the state.

On August 7 and 8, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan interacted with officials of 29 districts reporting a high number of coronavirus cases. He found that the above mentioned four districts from Karnataka were reporting high number of cases, conducting low tests per million population and had a high confirmation percentage.

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However, in the past 10 days, Kalaburagi had a higher test per million figure than the state average with the exception of Belagavi being at the bottom of the list with the least tests per million rate in the state. According to the state war room report of August 9, in the last 10 days, Udupi did 11,850 tests per million, Bengaluru Urban did 10,329, Kalaburagi 5,964, Karnataka 5,739 and Belagavi 1,934.

Munish Moudgil, in-charge of state war room said, "This is the true picture. The Centre must have looked at older data or other factors." When asked about other factors like tests done per day, absolute number of tests done this week compared to last week, turnaround time for test results, and number of healthcare workers who have tested positive in the district, D Randeep, Special Commissioner, BBMP, told DH on Monday, "Bengaluru Urban has done 61,200 tests per million when a population of 1.2 crore or 12 million is considered and the total number of tests done till now is factored in which is 7,34,378. While the tests done this week are 78,409, the tests done last week are 67,691. The turnaround time for RTPCR tests is two to three days."

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Kalaburagi District Health Officer Sharanabasappa Ganajalkhed told DH on Monday, "Total RTPCR tests done in the district are 97,193 while total rapid antigen tests done are 13,991. Last week, 7,708 RTPCR tests, 6,182 rapid antigen tests and 78 TrueNAT tests were done. When compared, this week the district did fewer tests: 4,212 RTPCR tests, 5,371 rapid antigen tests, and 144 TrueNAT tests."