Testing: Maharashtra and Gujarat are in the worry zone

By Subhash Chandra, CEO, CrowdWisdom360

Two weeks ago, I was one of the many who thought testing was not a big issue given India’s low incidence rate (amongst tested). Two weeks ago for example, 4.3% of those who were tested were found to be infected with COVID. In the United States, that is about 16.9%. In Germany which has an aggressive testing strategy, it was 6.5%.

By end of yesterday, India’s incidence rate (amongst those tested) came down to 4.1%. This is just a small drop from 4.3%. Even though testing went up nearly 2.5 times, the infection rate did not fall by much. This is not a good reflection of our testing.

If you look at Maharashtra and Gujarat in the above chart, as testing has gone up, the INFECTION RATE IS GOING UP.  

So while India’s infection rate (amongst tested) is low, the variations are quite high (Maharashtra is 8% while Karnataka is 0.9%). Similarly, increased testing is reducing infection rate in most States (MP and TN for example) but has increased in both Gujarat and Maharashtra.

Overall, it appears Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, MP, Telangana and Bengal have to improve much more both on Testing and Lockdown management.