When a communicable disease outbreak begins, the ideal response is for public health officials to begin testing for it early.
That leads to quick identification of cases, quick treatment for those people and immediate isolation to prevent spread. Early testing also helps to identify anyone who came into contact with infected people so they too can be quickly treated.
While we are obviously not in that ideal situation with COVID-19, testing remains critical.
Nearly 6 million people have been infected by COVID-19 resulting in more than 3.65 lakh deaths across the world. Most countries have implemented lockdowns for physical distancing to arrest the spread of the virus, but data collected over three months of the pandemic show that early testing, isolation and treatment is the surest way of reducing the impact of the pandemic irrespective of the stringency of the lockdown. How does India fare in comparison with other countries and how do Indian States stack up on the testing front?
In terms of total number of tests, India ranks third world-wide. More than 1,00,000 tests were conducted in the last seven days. Only the U.S. (3.7 lakh tests) and Russia (2.66 lakh) have conducted more tests overall in the last week. Clearly India has been ramping up its test rate in overall terms.
