new delhi the daily coronavirus test positivity rate has drastically soared in the last few weeks in the country led by the rise in cases in some of the worstaffected statesin delhi the positivity rate reached a staggering 30 prompting the government to impose a 6day lockdownthe overall positivity rate has also increased in the last 12 days the daily coronavirus positivity rate in india has doubled to 1669 the weekly positivity rate too has increased in the past month to 1354so what is the positivity rate it is the percentage of people who test positive for the virus compared to the total number of people who have been testeda high value of positivity rate suggests high coronavirus infection rate implying greater prevalance of the diseaseaccording to world health organisation the positivity rate should remain below 5 for two weeks before a government could start easing restrictionsa look at the positivity rate in the 18 worst coronavirushit states reveals that only eight states had positivity rate below the stipulated 5 mark however it would be wrong to assume that all these eight states are out of dangerfive states tamil nadu uttar pradesh odisha bihar and punjab out of the above eight states have conducted fewer testsmillion of population than the national averagethe inadequate testing could be one of the major reasons for the low positivity rate in these five states as the levels of testing dont manage to keep pace with the level of virus transmissionon the other hand there were ten states where the positivity rate was more than the whoprescribed limit of 5delhi appears to be staring at a huge crisis with an over 30 positivity rate the national capital is conducting over 3497 tests per million one of the highest in the countrya positivity rate of 30 despite extensive testing is a clear signal that the virus is widespread in the area imposition of restrictions is the only way to check this spreadin maharashtra the positivity rate was over 16 once again indicating that there is a high level of virus transmission in the statewest bengal is among the top 10 worsthit states in the country it has a positivity rate of 67 and it was conducting 473 tests per million of population one of the lowest in the countrythe high positivity rate and low testing figures suggest that the state government lags in tracking the exact extent of the virus transmission the ongoing state assembly elections have only exacerbated the problems for the statethe state of uttar pradesh where several major cities have been grappling with the sudden spike in the number of cases is conducting 1008 tests per millionthe state has one of the lowest positivity rates in the country 220 but this number could be misleading there is an urgent need for the most populated state in the country to drastically ramp up its testing infrastructurein kerala the positivity rate has crossed the 8 mark despite extensive testing the state