Delhi’s high testing rate key to dip in Covid-19 cases

Delhi has tested just over 1 million samples per million, almost four times the national average

Delhi has outpaced all other major states in terms of Covid-19 testing, a feat that might have contributed to the downward trend in cases that helped the city in isolating positive cases even while vaccine stocks run dry.

Delhi has tested just over 1 million samples per million as of Friday, which implies that the number of samples collected for testing exceeds the total population of the city, though it would include people who have been tested multiple times.

This is far ahead of the national average of about 282,000 tests per day, and also beating Jammu and Kashmir in second place with about 674,000 tests per million and Mumbai with 306,000 tests per million, based on census data.

Experts suggest Delhi’s high rate of testing may have helped flatten the steep uptick in cases as the national capital was one of the worst-hit Indian states during the brutal second wave. Testing helps to trace and to isolate Covid patients, cordoning off containment zones and controlling the outbreak.

The national capital’s testing strategy was also marked by a high proportion of RT-PCR tests, which are generally considered to be more reliable by health experts. RT-PCR tests accounted for at least 65% of more than 257,000 tests in April and 76% of the 193,000 in May, according to a report by the Hindustan Times.

“Delhi has been a model state nationally in terms of testing since the first Covid wave. Against the national average of 1,500 tests per million population per day, Delhi has consistently been doing 4,000 tests for several months now, which is the highest nationally and among the highest globally,” Harsh Mahajan, president of healthcare association NatHealth and founder of Mahajan Imaging that does RT-PCR tests in Delhi, told the daily.

Delhi has so far tested more than a cumulative 1.90 crore samples and tested an average of nearly 70,000 tests per day just this month, though the increase in the number of tests has slowed slightly as daily cases dip below 1,000.

Because of the drop off in fresh cases, the Delhi government has said a phased rollback of lockdown measures in the city will begin on Monday.