COVID-19: India conducts more than 6 lakh tests in 24 hours for 2nd day in a row

More than 6 lakh samples have been tested for Coronavirus for the second consecutive day in India, the Union Health Ministry has said, highlighting the speedy upgrade of testing capacity in the country. India has thus far tested 2,14,84,402 samples since the COVID-19 pandemic began early this year.

With 6,19,652 samples tested in the last 24 hours, the number of Test Per Million (TPM) has increased to 15,568. 

The resolve of Union and State/UT Governments to follow aggressive testing as the first important step in the early detection and treatment/home isolation of COVID-19 positive cases has resulted in India rapidly increasing the number of tests done per day, the Health Ministry said in a statement.

To keep up with the comprehensive “TEST, TRACK and TREAT” strategy, the testing lab network in the country is being continuously strengthened. The lab network as of August 5 consists of 1,366 labs in the country with 920 labs in the government sector and 446 private labs. These include:

• Real-Time RT PCR based testing labs: 696 (Govt: 421 + Private: 275)
• TrueNat based testing labs: 561 (Govt: 467 + Private: 94)
• CBNAAT based testing labs: 109 (Govt: 32 + Private: 77)

The Ministry on Tuesday said that of the total COVID-19 tests conducted all over the country, about 25-30 percent of tests comprise of rapid antigen tests. Out of the over two crore tests so far, 26.5 lakh tests are antigen tests.

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Coronavirus outbreak in India

Even as the COVID cases in the country continue to soar, India on Wednesday recorded the highest ever single-day recoveries, the health ministry said. The ministry stated that the country now has more than twice the number of recoveries than active cases. India has 5,86,244 active cases while the number of recoveries has reached 12,82,215.

Meanwhile, India's Coronavirus tally has crossed the 19-lakh mark with a single-day spike of 52,509 new cases and 857 deaths in the last 24 hours The total number of positive cases is 19,08,255 including 5,86,244 active cases, 12,82,216 cured and 39,795 deaths, it added. The recovery rate stands at 67.19% while the Case Fatality Rate has dipped to 2.09%.

The lockdown has been extended to August 31 under 'Unlock 3'. 

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