Page 381 - ES 2020-21_Volume-1-2 [28-01-21]

8 Economic Survey 2020-21 Volume 2

Figure 7: Ramping up Testing across the World
th
th
7 (a): As on 15 February, 2020 7 (b): As on 15 January, 2021

No testing Policy Limited Testing Testing if symptoms Open public testing

Source: WHO
Note: “Open public testing” is aggressive testing; “Testing if symptoms” refers to testing anyone who shows
COVID-19 symptoms; “Limited testing” is when an individual is showing symptoms and meets a laid down
criterion like medical worker, overseas travel etc. “No policy” refers to having no testing policy in place.

1.9 An analysis of tests per lakh and total cases per lakh shows that countries such as United
Kingdom, Argentina, Germany, Colombia, Switzerland, Poland and Peru need to perform more
tests as cases per lakh are on the higher side relative to tests conducted (Figure 8). US is an outlier
as it has both high tests per lakh and high caseload per lakh as on 31 December, 2020. India lies
st
below the global average of cases, despite being the second worst affected country in the world.

Figure 8: Total Tests vs Confirmed Cases per Lakh

Source: WHO
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Note: Data is as on 31 December 2020
1.10 India rapidly ramped up its capacity to rapidly scale-up tests. In January 2020, India had
only one laboratory testing for COVID-19, at the National Institute of Virology, Pune. Today