Corpn, govt show different testing figures

Corpn, govt show different testing figures

Govt Should Explain Huge Disparity In Figures: NGO

Siddharth.Prabhakar@timesgroup.com

Chennai:21.06.2020

The state government and Greater Chennai Corporation have started publicly releasing day-wise sample testing numbers for the city, but disparities have been noticed by many.

At a press meet on Friday afternoon, corporation commissioner G Prakash said 2.1 lakh people had been tested in the city so far. However, just a few hours later, the medical bulletin released by the state government showed that the total number of samples tested in Chennai was 1,65,609. On Saturday, the bulletin put out by the health department put the total number of samples tested for the city at 1,70,701.

Jayaram Venkatesan, social activist and convenor of Arappor Iyakkam, an NGO, has demanded an explanation for this. “There is a big difference of 45,000 tests between Greater Chennai Corporation’s claim and health department claim. The TN government should explain the difference and if so, what is the result of the 45,000 tests,” Venkatesan said.

There is another data mismatch in the TN government bulletins as well. Saturday’s bulletin put the number of samples tested across the state in the past 24 hours at 33,231, but when the district-wise testing figures of Friday and Saturday – 7,33,744 and 7,11,678 – were compared, the difference was 22,066, TOI has found.

This mismatch, a senior Greater Chennai Corporation official told TOI, was due to a reconciliation issue as huge volumes were handled. “This has been confirmed by the health department also. It is indicated in a footnote in the daily bulletin,” the official said.

As per official corporation statistics, 2.1 lakh samples have been tested in the city until June 19, as indicated by Prakash.

The TN medical bulletin, while giving out testing figures, states that the figures are based on entries made by ICMR-approved RT-PCR testing labs on the ICMR web portal. It also states that the entry of remaining records into the ICMR portal is in progress.

Also the district-wise tagging of tests is based on residential address given by individuals, the bulletin states.

Chennai has around 45 testing labs of which 10-12 are private labs. According to the daily bulletin, across Tamil Nadu, Covid-19 tests are done in 45 government and 40 private labs.

TESTING TIMES: Samples being drawn at Arumbakkam for Covid-19 test by health workers of Greater Chennai Corporation