Over 7.24 lakh COVID-19 tests in Delhi so far: Govt

Over 7.24 lakh tests for coronavirus have been conducted in the national capital till Thursday, according to official data of the Delhi government.

As many as 12,750 rapid antigen tests were conducted in the last 24 hours while 9,719 RT-PCR tests were carried out during the same time, the data said.

The national capital has conducted 38,113 tests per million population, it added.

Since June 18, when COVID-19 testing through the rapid-antigen method started, over three lakh tests have been conducted in Delhi -- around 17,000 tests per day.

Over 45 percent of the tests for coronavirus here were conducted after the government commenced testing through the rapid-antigen methodology in and around containment zones of the city.

Nearly two lakh people have been tested through the antigen kits, according to the Delhi government's health bulletin.

Till June 18, the health authorities had conducted 3,21,302 tests for the disease using the "expensive but gold standard" RT-PCR method, it said.

The number of tests per day has also seen around four-fold increase from 4,190 tests per day in the first week of June to 15,863 tests per day in the last week of the month, the data stated.

On Friday last week, the government expanded the rapid-antigen testing technique, earlier limited to containment zones, to other areas in all 11 districts. Now, state-run and private hospitals in the capital have also begun testing for COVID-19 using this method following the government's nod.

According to health authorities, rapid-antigen testing is an easy and cheaper method as compared to the real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test.



Each testing kit costs Rs 450 and can provide results within 30 minutes as compared to RT-PCR test that takes three to four hours.