The Telugu states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have taken contrasting approaches in fighting Covid-19. Andhra continues to test on a war footing with over 6,000 tests per day, the authorities in Telangana have issued a controversial order, saying secondary contacts of positive patients will not be tested anymore. Instead, they will be placed under home quarantine for 28 days. Andhra Pradesh is testing the most cases, say officials.
Despite conducting over 48,034 tests, AP has reported 893 positive cases until now while Telangana has reported 943 cases after only 13,200 tests. This paints a scary picture in Telangana. Reports said thousands of people, said to be likely Covid-19 patients, have not been tested in Hyderabad’s old city. Authorities in Telangana have been pretty public about the state not endorsing community testing at a large scale. The same is reflected in the number of tests per million it has conducted. Telangana has carried out only 375 tests per million while Andhra Pradesh tops the chart with 961 tests per million followed by Rajasthan at 877 tests per million.
TRS president K.T. Rama Rao questioned Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s announcement of testing 1,00,000 samples at random, saying it doesn’t serve any purpose at large but results in chaos. This raises a larger question, is this due to a shortage of testing kits? Observers ask why couldn’t Telangana procure testing kits from South Korea like Andhra did. Will abstaining from testing cause a much larger problem in the future? Telangana authorities have a lot to answer for and learn from Andhra Pradesh and Delhi.
