New Delhi: India achieved the milestone of conducting highest number of COVID tests by testing over 10 lakh 50 thousand samples in the last 24 hours. The country has witnessed significant stepping up in it’s COVID testing capacity in the last 5 months. So far, with an overall testing figure of nearly 4 crore 14 lakh 61 thousand, the nation has also been able to maintain a remarkably low positivity rate of around 8.5 per cent.
Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh have recorded a positivity rate even lower than 5 per cent. In another remarkable feat, all States and Union Territories have surpassed the 140 tests per day per million population as advised by the WHO.
The national average of tests conducted per million of the population on a single day scaled a new peak of being at nearly 545. Goa, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Odisha have conducted over 900 tests per million of their population. Around seven other states as well have registered higher testing figures per million of their population than the national average.
The Union Health Ministry informed that the remarkable feat has been achieved by rigorously following the “Test, Track and Treat” strategy. The week-wise average daily tests conducted in the country has also witnessed a sharp increase from around 2.3 lakh in the first week of July to around 9 lakh in the current week.
Government said that the strong determinant of this milestone has been a sustained expansion of testing labs across the country. From merely one lab in January this year, the country today has 1 thousand 583 labs. Out of these, one thousand three are government labs while the remaining 580 are private.
The recovery rate of patients from COVID-19 in the country continues it’s upward trend and has improved to 76.61 per cent today.
The total number of patients recovered so far is more than 3 and a half times the number of active cases. With sustained, pre-emptive and timely interventions, nearly 65 thousand patients recovered in the last 24 hours taking the cumulative recoveries in the country at 27 lakh 13 thousand 933. Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Haryana , Gujarat, Assam, West Bengal, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu have recorded recovery rates even higher than 80 per cent.
The Health Ministry has informed that out of the total active Corona cases in the country only 0.29 per cent are on ventilators whereas nearly 2 per cent of the total patients are in the ICU.
The case fatality rate in the country also continues to show steady decline and remains among one of the lowest in the world at 1.79 per cent. Assam, Kerala, Bihar, Odisha , Telangana, Tripura, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have recorded fatality rates less than even 1 per cent. 29 States and Union territories have registered fatality rates even lower than the national average.
The Health Ministry said that over 78 thousand new cases of Covid- 19 have been registered in the country in the last 24 hours taking the cumulative figure to 35 lakh 42 thousand 734.
Presently, the total number of active corona cases in the country is 7 lakh 65 thousand 302. In a single day, 948 deaths have also been reported taking the toll to 63 thousand 498.
Health Ministry today also said, as India rides the wave of an upsurge in testing, many States and Union Territories have exceeded 140 tests per day per million population as advised by World Health Organization (WHO). In a tweet, the Ministry said, several have demonstrated better performance with Positivity Rate lower than the national average.
