New Delhi, May 29 (IANS): In the past three weeks, the Delhi government has scaled up testing for Covid-19 by collecting almost double the amount of samples, while the pendency of the reports have reduced to half, data from the Health Department said.

The data accessed by IANS from the Delhi Health Department said that on May 26, 5,359 samples were collected -- highest in a day so far in this month -- and the pendency was 2,650.

On May 6, only 1,815 samples were collected, and the pendency stood at 6,153 -- highest in the last three weeks.

Between then and now, while the sample collection increased, the pendency started decreasing.

On May 7 and 8, 1,608 and 1,360 samples were collected, respectively, while the pendency was over 4,000.

At least 1,279 samples were collected on May 9, when the pendency was 3,842.

On average, more than 1,900 samples were collected between May 10 and May 14 and the pendency each day stood at over 4,000.

On May 15, the pendency went up to 5,080 even as the samples collected were only 1,722 during the day.

Similarly, the pendency was more than 2,000 each day between May 16 and May 23, except on May 19 when it was 1,841.

The sample collected each day in this period varied between 2,262 (May 17) and 4,366 (May 22) -- May 16 (3,381), May 18 (4,235), May 19 (4,132), May 20 (3,953), May 21 (4,255) and May 23 (4,272).

"Similarly, 3,329 samples were collected on May 24 while the pendency at different labs stood at 2,641. On May 25, 3,276 samples were collected while the pendency was 2,386," the data said.

On April 29, owing to 'considerable pendency' for the test reports in NIB, the Delhi government had directed the officials to not send test samples to the Noida-based organisation.

Within a week, the Delhi government had asked the National Institute of Biologicals (NIB) to destroy all the pending samples.

On May 4, the Delhi High Court directed the Delhi government to ensure that coronavirus samples sent to the accredited labs were processed swiftly and the results were declared within 24-48 hours.

"We have been following the guidelines of the high court. The samples are tested within 24 hours. Some samples are pending still. The pendency was very high during the initial weeks of May. And with increasing testing in the last few days, the load is high. The labs are under a watch for sample testing," an Health Department official told IANS.