Despite the Uttarakhand Government’s claim of augmenting the testing facilities for Covid-19 in the state, the huge backlog of untested samples in the labs of the state presents a gloomy picture of things.
The data of the state health department reveals that 9579 samples are lying untested in different labs of the state (report of May 21).
The authorities have so far collected samples of 129783 people for Covid-19 tests.
The data further shows that Uttarakhand is doing 1137 tests per lakh of population.
The founder of the ‘Social Development for Communities Foundation, Dehradun’ Anoop Nautiyal said that in the number of tests per lakh of population Uttarakhand is in tenth position out of 11 Himalayan states and Union Territories (UT). The UT of Ladakh is at top of the table with 5546 tests per lakh of population. The UT has a population of three lakhs as per the census of 2011 and has so far done 16639 tests.
Neighboring state of Jammu and Kashmir too is faring well with 4336 tests per lakh of population. J & K has so far done 528946 tests.
Himachal Pradesh (HP) which is immediate neighbour of Uttarakhand is conducting 1728 tests per lakh of population and is on seventh position among 11 Himalayan states, three places above Uttarakhand.