In June-July Bengaluru tested 2.2k samples a day; Karnataka lags too

BENGALURU: Notwithstanding several officials across departments and ministers reiterating that testing capacity in Karnataka must increase — especially in Bengaluru, which accounts for nearly 40% of all Covid positive cases in the state — data for June and July shows testing is lagging behind targets set by the government.
While the government has been talking about testing 5,000 samples a day in the city, only 2,164 were tested daily on average in June, with a total 78,440 samples tested in 30 days.In the first four days of July, 9,047 samples have been tested at 2,261 per day, which is slightly better than the June average, but is still only about half of what authorities had planned to test.
In all, Bengaluru has tested 1.2 lakh samples in 117 days since the first case was reported in the state, at a rate of 1,030 samples per day. In fact, on July 4, Bengaluru Urban tested as many as 3,575 samples, which was much higher than the average, but it still fell short of the target set by the state — 4,370 — by about 18%.
Experts have been batting for more tests, especially since the number of cases began to skyrocket. As of Saturday, Bengaluru had 8,345 positive cases compared to 94,695 in New Delhi, 82,074 in Mumbai, 64,689 in Chennai and 6,622 in Kolkata.
The average testing rate in the state also remained largely unchanged from last week with Karnataka testing under 10,000 samples per million and lagging behind other states with a population of crore or more.
Compared to Karnataka, Delhi is testing 29,750 samples per million, followed by Jammu and Kashmir (28,039), Andhra Pradesh (16,981) and Tamil Nadu (15,393). There are other states that fare better than Karnataka too.
In fact, Niti Aayog chief Amitabh Kant on Saturday asked all states to emulate Delhi.
“The high tests per million being undertaken now in Delhi must be emulated by other states. This is critical. States must be judged on testing. We can succeed against #Covid-19 only with 3T strategy of testing, tracing & treating. This is the moment to act, and to act fast,” Kant said in a tweet.
In the south, Karnataka fares poorly compared to all states barring Telangana. This is despite the fact that the state has been testing between 13,000 to 18,000 samples per day in the last week, most of them in Bengaluru.
Data for July 3 and 4 shows that only three districts in Karnataka — Kalaburagi, Chamarajanagar and Chikkaballapura — met testing targets set for them, which, experts say, must be set higher for most districts.
An average of daily testing done for the last 10 days shows Karnataka is testing only 2,171 samples per million, which is much lower than its overall rate.