At 4.2 lakh, India records highest-ever COVID-19 tests in a single day
India has recorded its highest-ever COVID-19 tests in a single day. As the country ramped up testing for COVID-19, over 4.20 lakh tests were conducted in a day, the Union Health Ministry said on Saturday.
In January, India had only one lab for testing samples for the highly-infectious disease but now the number has increased to 1,301, including private labs. The Health Ministry said revised guidelines by ICMR and all-round efforts by states also aided in widespread testing.
India has conducted a total of 1,58,49,068 tests for COVID-19 in the country till Friday. The ministry said 3.50 lakh tests were done every day over the last week. With 4,20,898 samples tested in the past 24 hours, it added, the Tests Per Million (TPM) has increased to 11,485 and continues to maintain an upward trend. The Health Ministry said revised guidelines by ICMR and all-round efforts by states also aided in widespread testing.
In a statement, the ministry said the Union government advised all state and UT governments to "keep up the strategy of 'Test, Track and Treat' with aggressive testing which may lead to higher number of daily positive cases initially but would eventually achieve a decline as has been demonstrated after the central government's targeted efforts in the NCT of Delhi."
With increased testing of samples for COVID-19, the fatality rate has significantly dropped to 2.35 per cent on Saturday and the recovery rate has surged to 63.54 per cent. "India has one of the lowest fatality rates in the world," the health ministry said.
The downward trend in fatality rate means the collective efforts of the Centre and state and UT governments have checked the mortality due to COVID-19, it stated.
A total of 8,49,431 COVID-19 patients have recovered.
The recoveries exceed the active cases by 3,93,360.
However, with 48,916 fresh cases, India's COVID-19 tally zoomed past 13 lakh on Saturday, just two days after it crossed the 12-lakh mark, while the death toll mounted to 31,358, the ministry said.
(With PTI inputs)
