ICMR claims 'enough' testing kits; figures tell different tale
New Delhi: If we go by the words of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) officials, there are enough testing kits available in the country and it would last for a longer period.
However, the numbers of tests being done in a day contradict the claims of the ICMR officials as on an average close to 16,000 tests are being done in a country which has a population of over 130 crore.
Opposition parties have also expressed their concern and asked the government to increase testing facilities to conduct more and more testing.
In response to the lower rate of testing, senior ICMR official Raman Gangakhedkar said, "We have changed the testing protocols and allowed diagnosis of all influenza-like illness cases. States/UTs have been directed to test all eligible samples and even after this, if less number of samples are being tested that means eligible samples are not coming."
It doesn't mean that there is a shortage of kit or testing facilities as at present 236 labs are operational and out of which 166 labs are in ICMR network while remaining 70 are ICMR approved private labs, he said.
"We have kits that could last for 6 weeks. Now we have received another instalment of RT-PCR (reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction) test kits to cover ourselves for a pretty long period of time," the ICMR official said, adding that we have ordered 33 lakh kits for RT-PCR and 37 lakh rapid kits are expected at any time now.
As per sources, the ICMR is expecting to receive their next batch of testing kits consignment by the end of this month.
The ICMR official further said that total 2,31,902 tests have been conducted in the country. On Monday, 21,635 samples were tested for coronavirus, out of which 18, 644 samples were tested in government labs and 2,991 samples in private labs.
However, the experts have raised their concern over low levels of testing. "The smaller number of COVID-19 cases in India in comparison to other badly hit western countries doesn't mean that we are a 'better' positive. The positive cases are lesser as we are not testing at the rate of other countries."
"The countries like the US, Germany, are conducting over 1 lakh tests in a day, so they are reporting more number of cases," the experts have said.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also questioned the government's efforts at increasing COVID-19 testing. In a tweet, the Congress leader said, "India delayed the purchase of testing kits and is now critically short of them. With just 149 tests per million Indians, we are now in the company of Laos (157), Niger (182) & Honduras (162). Mass testing is the key to fighting the virus. At present we are nowhere in the game (sic)."
