BHOPAL: From 48 new cases on December 29 to 308 on January 4, Covid infections have risen exponentially in the past week, but testing has slowed down.
It’s an alarming trend when the Omicron threat is growing and Delta is already causing another surge in MP. While 61,819 samples were tested on December 29, it dropped to 57,843 on January 4.
This, despite CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s directive to ensure 60,000 tests a day.
Testing on the decline in MP for months
The positivity rate, which was only 0.07% on December 29, has since risen to 0.53%. If there were more tests, more Covid patients would be identified earlier, helping in their isolation and treatment.
Even on Tuesday, if as many tests had been conducted as a week earlier, it could have led to a daily count of 328 - 20 more than what was reported in the bulletin.
Barring the month of December, when there was a slight increase in testing compared to previous months, Covid testing in MP has been decreasing month on month. On June 26, CM Chouhan had said that no less than 80,000 tests should be conducted daily in the state, but the daily average has gone nowhere close to that.
The highest daily average in the last six months was in August, when 69,764 samples would be tested daily. It dropped to 65,579 in September, and plunged to 56,115 in October and 52,334 in November. Testing rose slightly to an average of 58,856 in December but has slipped again.
