Delhi doing average 952 tests daily, awaits rapid testing kits

New Delhi, April 17 (SocialNews.XYZ) Even as it awaits the one lakh rapid Covid-19 testing kits which were due to arrive from April 10, Delhi has conducted 952 coronavirus tests per day on an average between April 1-15.

Speaking to IANS, an official from the Delhi Health Department said the arrival of the kits has not started yet.

"We placed the order earlier this month and the kits were expected for arrival by April 10. However, we have not received any kits as of now," said the official, who did not want to be identified.

According to the Health Department data accessed by IANS, the city has conducted 952 tests between April 1 and 15 on an average. The highest number of tests (2,873 tests) across the city were conducted on April 5 and least (153 tests) on April 3.

While more than a thousand tests were done on April 14 (1,250), April 12 (2,327) , April 10 (1,093), and April 6 (1,897), the number fell below 500 on April 15 (323 tests), April 8 (291 tests), April 4 (421 tests) and April 2 (499 tests).

On April 7, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced that the government had ordered rapid testing for 1 lakh people and it will start coming from April 10.

However, even after a week, the Health Department has not been able to get the kits.

"The government is still trying to get the kits. It is taking a little longer. But hopefully we will get it in the coming days," the official said.

Also, Kejriwal had on April 7 said through rapid testing the government "will be able to identify the hotspot areas of the Covid-19 outbreak and take necessary action".

However, on Thursday, he clarified that only those with symptoms in the hotspots are being tested and not everyone.

"Door-to-door surveys are being done in every house across the hotspots. During the survey, someone from the government will ask if anyone is showing symptoms. This is done in all the containment zones. Sample of those with symptoms are taken. Not everyone's samples are taken," Kejriwal said.

Till March 31, the city has conducted only 2,315 tests, with 120 positive cases. Among the total, 317 were conducted in private labs.

On April 17, total 18,748 tests were conducted in Delhi, with 3,077 done by private labs. Also, while 1,640 test reports were positive, as many as 2,251 reports were pending.

Among the total tests, 1,825 samples were taken from the containment zones, the data from the Health Department said. So far, 68 containment zones have been announced in Delhi.

As of date, there are eight operational Government Laboratories across the city, including Central government's All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

The other seven are Lady Hardinge Medical College; National Centre for Disease Control; Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital; Institute of Liver & Biliary Sciences; Army Hospital Research & Referral; Maulana Azad Medical College; and Vardhman Mahavir Medical College and Safdarjung Hospital.

Apart from government labs, 10 private labs are also conducting Covid tests.

These are Lal Path Labs (Sector 18, Rohini); Dr. Dangs Lab (Safadarjung Development Area); Laboratory Services, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals (Sarita Vihar); Max Lab, Max Super Speciality Hospital (Saket); Sir Ganga Ram Hospital Clinical Lab Services, (Sir Ganga Ram Hospital); Oncquest Labs Ltd (Factory Road); Prognosis Laboratories (Sector 19, Dwarka); City X-Ray and Scan Clinic Pvt Ltd (Tilak ANagar); Lifeline Laboratory (Green Park Extension); and Department of Lab Services, Dr.A B.L. Kapur Memorial Hospital (Pusa Road).

Delhi has reported about 1,650 coronavirus cases with 38 deaths.

Source: IANS