Data from these 24 states and UT totaled 11.99,627 tests on September 24. The smaller states and UTs not included in the list together account for less than 18,000 tests, bringing the total to around 12.17,000 tests in total – more than 2.7 lakh less than the 14.9 lakh figure.
While the ICMR does not release state test figures, an internal council document accessed by TOI provides a breakdown of state test data for September 24. The document shows that Telangana performed 2,62,794 tests that day, by far the highest in the country. The Telangana government’s figures for September 24 are much more modest at 57,621 tests.
Similarly, the ICMR figures for Andhra Pradesh (1.87,341) are at odds with the 69,429 tests that the state government said were conducted on September 24.
ICMR officials said the council does not release state test data. “We publish only cumulative data received directly from laboratories. The states collect data themselves, except for some states like UP that have a common portal, ”said an ICMR official.
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The official said that ICMR follows a system of direct reporting of test numbers by laboratories. Any Covid test performed by any government-accredited laboratory in the country is reported directly to the ICMR portal, discounting the extent of any errors.
A senior Telangana health official said the higher figures recorded by ICMR could be the result of a technical glitch or double counting when merging the data.
“So far we have not carried out more than 63,000 tests in one day. There could have been some technical error or duplication at the time the data was merged, ”said Dr. G Srinivasa Rao, director of public health in the Telangana government.
“We have been using our own software to collect test data and we have a portal and application for that purpose. The Center also created a portal two months ago. The data is uploaded on site by the test centers on our portal and reflected on the ICMR site automatically. There could be some technical error in the process, ”Rao said.
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Health officials in Andhra Pradesh noted that testing numbers in the state had never exceeded 80,000 in one day. The highest number in the past six months was 77,492 tests conducted on September 17. “The state does not have the testing capacity or the manpower to test 1.87 lakhs in one day,” said an official.
The ICMR data for September 24 also appears to be at odds with data obtained from the council by the Andhra Pradesh government for its daily Covid reports. These daily reports contain the cumulative test status for the top 23 states at 9 a.m. M. Every day, according to ICMR data. The test numbers for Sept. 24, obtained by subtracting the cumulative figures to that day from the following day’s data, also add up to 11.94,085 for the 23 states. These figures are identical or close to the figures reported by individual states.
With input from Sushmi Dey and Syed Akbar
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