How behind is SA on Covid-19 testing? It depends on who you ask, but do not ask government

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South Africa is anywhere between three and 10 days behind on testing, depending on whether you ask Health Minister Zweli Mkhize or his acting director-general, Dr Anban Pillay.

And if you ask the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) for data to analyse testing - it simply will not give it to you.

It is clear, however, that state-run laboratories are struggling with a backlog of coronavirus tests.

According to Pillay, they were roughly 10 days, or 80 000 tests, behind.

But according to Mkhize, the actual backlog was 30 000, which would mean public labs were three-and-a-half days behind.

The average incubation period (days between infection and the start of symptoms) for Covid-19 was five days, according to the World Health Organisation.

Mkhize and Pillay were speaking during a joint sitting of the health portfolio committees of the National Council of Provinces and the National Assembly on Thursday night. Mkhize contradicted Pillay minutes after he spoke. 

The Department of Health and the CEO of the NHLS, Dr Kamy Chetty, were asked to clarify the mix-up on Thursday night, but no response had been forthcoming at the time of writing.

Earlier on Thursday, Western Cape Premier Alan Winde claimed the national testing backlog stood at 100 000. Late on Thursday night, responding to a Tweet, Winde shared a slide from a NHLS presentation, which showed the backlog of tests for each province - the total, as of 25 May, was 96 480.