Andhra Pradesh govt claims it tops country in testing COVID-19 cases

The Andhra Pradesh government on Wednesday claimed it topped the country in conducting the most number of coronavirus tests per million population, clocking 830.

In all, 41,512 people were tested across the state so far, the Medical and Health Department said in a release.

Of the total tests, 40,699 have turned negative so far, it said.

On Tuesday alone, 5,757 tests were conducted, including 3,082 using TruNat machines that were actually used for tuberculosis testing.

No other state was conducting coronavirus tests on this scale, the release claimed.

"The number of tests per million thus reached 830. With 809, Rajasthan stood second behind AP in this regard,it said. AP's test numbers were, however, not uploaded on the ICMR website though the government has been constantly sending the data, the release added.

Official sources said they were unable to upload the state data on the website as we were not given the logins.

On Monday, the state government released data, saying it conducted 715 tests per million.

On April 16, state Special Chief Secretary (Health) K S Jawahar Reddy put the per million tests number at 331.

"From just 230 tests per day at the beginning of this month, we are now doing about 5,700. We went very aggressive on testing and hence the increased numbers," a senior Health Department official pointed out. Our data is true, he said.

The Andhra Pradesh government had on April 17 imported one lakh Rapid Test Kits (RTKs) from South Korea to step up COVID-19 testing in the state.

These were the first bath of the one million RTKs ordered by the state government.

With the use of RTKs, the result can be obtained in just 10 minutes on whether or not a person carried the virus.