Gujarat conducting 3,000 COVID-19 tests per day

Ahmedabad, Apr 23: As many as 3,000 coronavirus tests are being conducted in Gujarat every day and there is no plan to reduce it, a senior official said on Thursday while dismissing rumours that the state government has reduced COVID-19 testing.

The Gujarat government has decided to declare the figures of coronavirus tests and results once in 24 hours, state principal secretary (health) Jayanti Ravi told reporters in Gandhinagar. At present, it provides the details twice a day.

"We have not reduced the tests to detect coronavirus cases. We are conducting 3,000 tests everyday in Gujarat."

"Out of these, 2,500 samples are collected from across the state while 500 samples are of those who are already quarantined or admitted to hospitals," Ravi said.

The official was responding to questions on rumours about reducing COVID-19 tests in the state.

"Till now, we used to share tests and death figures once in the morning and then in the evening. To avoid any duplication of data, we will now share the details only in the evening. The figures will reflect all the tests conducted across the state during 24 hours," Jayanti Ravi said.

The state witnessed 103 deaths with 2,407 positive coronavirus cases till Wednesday.

In the past few days, Gujarat has seen rising Covid-19 positive numbers at a faster rate.

In one week, the number of people who tested positive for COVID-19 in Gujarat has more than tripled, from 766 on April 15 to 2,407 on April 22. According to reports, Gujarat is now the second-largest state holding the number of coronavirus positive people.

The number of COVID-19 cases has increased significantly because of the intensive surveillance and testing in areas which have been declared as hotspots, according to the official.