PM Narendra Modi asks UP, Bihar, WB, Gujarat & Telangana to increase COVID testing

New Delhi: PM Narendra Modi on Tuesday specifically asked five states, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Telangana and West Bengal to increase their current testing levels, citing their high test positivity rates and low tests conducted per million rates. This comes even as UP and Bihar are conducting the highest number of daily tests in the country presently at almost one lakh and 80,000 respectively. However, the Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar admitted at the PM’s meeting on Tuesday that out of the average 75,000 tests done in Bihar daily, only 6,100 are RT-PCR tests while as many as 65,000 are rapid antigen tests and that there was a need to increase the number of the “important” RT-PCR tests to 20,000 daily. He promised the PM that Bihar will soon increase its daily testing to one lakh. In UP too, nearly 65% of the tests done daily are rapid antigen. UP has done total of 33 lakh tests while Bihar has done 12 lakh.

Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said that states with high test positivity rates,despite high levels of testing, meant many positive patients would still be escaping their net and reaching hospitals late leading to higher mortality. “Level of testing has to be seen in conjunction with positivity rate. If it continues to be high,say 8% to 13%, and is not coming down below 5%, we are asking those states to conduct more tests,” he said. Asymptomatic persons testing negative in a rapid antigen test must be put through an RT-PCR test if they develop symptoms after two-three days, he said. All states were conducting over 140 daily tests per million as per a WHO standard, he added.

Bihar however continues to be at the lowest spot in the country in terms of tests conducted per million at just 9800 while West Bengal is at 11,700, Uttar Pradesh is at 14,700, Gujarat is at 15,000 and Telangana is at 17,300. The national average is about 19,000 tests conducted per million population. A senior government official told ET that these five states had a high number of active cases and their continuing low tests done per million rates was an issue of concern. What is worrying for the Centre is that Bihar is presently at about 7.3% test positivity rate, West Bengal is at 8.7%, Gujarat is at 7.1% and Telangana is at the highest at 12.9% test positivity rate. Only UP among the 5 states is faring well at 4% test positivity rate. “The real picture in these states will only emerge once testing is further ramped up,” a senior government official told ET.