Six days after surge in COVID-19 cases in Telangana, the cases are on downward trajectory from the figures of past three days as 1,178 cases were recorded on Saturday.
While 1,924 cases were detected on Wednesday, 1,410 were recorded on Thursday, 1,278 on Friday, and 1,178 on Saturday. Nine more COVID-19 patients died on the day.
Of the 1,178 new cases, 736 were recorded in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), 125 from Rangareddy, and 101 from Medchal.
A total of 33,402 cases were recorded from March 2 to July 11. Of them, 12,135 are active cases, 20,919 were discharged, and 348 died.
From Friday, when the number of tests were further increased by the State Health department, a curious trend has been observed. While the number of tests increased, the number of cases has come down from the past two days.
The number of tests conducted in a day ranged between 3,000 and 6,500 from June 20 to July 9. On July 10 (Friday), 10,354 tests were conducted, and 11,062 were conducted on Saturday.
Until Tuesday, only RT-PCR tests were used to determine a positive case. The State Health department has started to use Rapid Antigen Tests to determine coronavirus positive cases.
Number of tests conducted in a day and total tests are mentioned in the Medical Bulletin issued daily by the State Health department. However, it was not mentioned in the Medical Bulletin if the tests conducted on Friday and Saturday included Rapid Antigen Tests.
The World Health Organisation, on April 8 stated that sensitivity of antigen-based Rapid Diagnostic Tests might be expected to vary from 34% to 50%. This was based on experience with the RDTs for other respiratory diseases such as influenza.
Since sensitivity of the antigen test is under question, some who have coronavirus might test negative. This is called false negative.
If the State Health department categorises the numbers according to the RT-PCR, and Rapid Antigen Tests, it helps people understand sensitivity of the tests.
When asked, senior officials of the Health department said that those with symptoms and who test negative in the Rapid Antigen Test would be tested again using RT-PCR tests.
Link to Positivity Rate
The Test Positivity Rate might drop over the days if equally high number or more tests are conducted in the State. The positivity rate is percentage of samples which test positive for coronavirus.
From 12.6% till June 16, it spiked to 21.98% till June 9. This was observed after tests were increased from mid-June. It stood at 20.05% on Saturday.
