Telangana finally allows private labs to test for COVID-19 as positivity rate soars to 20%

In a major reprieve for Telangana, CM K Chandrashekhara Rao, on Sunday has allowed private hospitals to test for Coronavirus (COVID-19) in coming week, after reviewing state's COVID-19 response. Moreover, Chief Minister has reportedly directed that 50,000 people must be tested in Hyderabad, Rangareddy, Vikarabad, Medchal and Sangareddy districts. state has reported 4737 cases and 182 deaths till date.

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Telangana CM expands testing

KCR has also said that government will decide on guidelines and charges for pvt hospitals to test COVID-19 patients. Recently junior doctors in state had held protests against attack on a doctor by kin of a deceased COVID-19 patient and demanded decentralisation of coronavirus patients' treatment, adequate PPEs. y have resumed duties since Friday, after health minister E Rajender's assured to address ir grievances.

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Telangana's testing worries

As of date, Telangana has only tested 23,388 samples in its six government testing labs, as per covid19tracker. In comparison, its neighbour Andhra Pradesh has tested 5,36,570 samples till date. Both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have over 4000 cases testing positive - Telangana has 4737 cases, while Andhra has 5965 cases. On one hand, due to Andhra Pradesh's massive testing, its test positivity rate  — ratio of positive diagsis to number of tests conducted — is at 1.11%, while Telangana's positivity rate is at 20.25%, which is four times higher than India's positivity rate (5.67%).

On May 17, Centre had pulled up Telangana for testing lowest, while having a higher positivity rate than national aver. In a letter written by Union health secretary Preeti Sudan, Centre had pointed out that Telangana accounted to only 1.5% or 20,754 tests of total 14 lakh tests conducted at by nation. state has only six government labs - five in Hyderabad and one in Secunderabad, as per state government's website.

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Subsequently, on May 22, Telangana High Court directed Telangana government to allow authorised private labs to conduct Covid-19 tests and private hospitals to commence treatment, as per reports. A high court bench comprising of Justices M S Ramachandra Rao and K Lakshman has slammed KCR government for insisting that patients test only in government labs and seek treatment in government hospitals only. But state ruled out involving private labs and hospitals, defending its testing mechanism saying it followed ICMR guidelines.

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