With over 10k tests per million, J&K number one in COVID-19 testing in country

Jammu and Kashmir has now become number one in the country in COVID-19 testing with a testing rate of over 10,000 per million population.

The testing capacity in the Union Territory (UT) has gone up from just about 100 tests/day in March to 8000 tests/day on Monday. In the last one month alone it has gone up from 1800 tests/day to 8100/day – an increase of 350%.

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J&K government spokesperson Rohit Kansal said that aggressive and sustained testing was the only effective weapon against the coronavirus disease and the administration shall continue to pursue it effectively.

“The government has taken a slew of measures on the health, economic and welfare fronts. Jammu and Kashmir was probably one of the first states or UTs to take note of the emerging situation and initiate action and many of our interventions have not only been fast but effective too,” he said in a presser in Jammu.

It may be recalled that the total number of COVID-19 cases in J&K is 1668. The number of active cases are 836. As many as 809 recoveries which include young children and 23 unfortunate deaths have also been reported.

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Kansal pointed out that while J&K had been able to achieve a low growth rate and a doubling rate of over three weeks, this should not become a cause of complacency.

Reminding that effective lockdown, strong containment policy, aggressive testing and cooperation by the people of J&K played a key role in containment of COVID-19, the government spokesperson said that there is no room for any laxity.

“What we now need is to understand that there are enough worrying factors in the situation. 15 deaths have been reported in the last month alone. There is at least one district which has more than 200 active cases and at least one district with more than 150 active cases,” he said and added that a number of local, indigenous cases for which contact chains are not yet fully clear have also been reported which is a cause of concern.

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He said that over 90,000 stranded persons have already returned to J&K in the last four weeks alone, they include 66024 persons by road, 25400 by 30 ‘Shramik’ special and COVID special Rajdhani trains and 652 persons by air.

“J&K is the one state/UT which has smoothly completed more than 85% of its evacuation process. The government has consciously adopted a policy of testing 100% of all returnees. All the returnees are being tested, and as a result of the strategy the administration has been successful in tracing 481 positive cases so far,” Kansal added.