Crossing milestone, India conducts over 4 crore COVID tests cumulatively

Crossing another milestone, India has conducted over 4 crore COVID-19 tests since January this year, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Saturday.

"With focussed, consistent and coordinated efforts led by the Centre and implemented by the State/UT governments, India has set a new landmark of testing 4,04,06,609 people. India has come a long way from conducting just one test from the lab in Pune in January 2020 to crossing 4 crore tests milestone," the press statement from the Ministry read.

Notably, the single-day tests have also seen an upsurge. "Already having achieved the testing capacity of 10 lakh tests per day, 9,28,761 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours."

"This has boosted the Tests Per Million (TPM) with a sharp increase to 29,280. As is seen in many States/UTs that have increased the testing, the positivity rate will eventually fall with higher levels of testing. The national positivity rate has remained low i.e. 8.57% and is constantly falling," the Union Health Ministry said.

India is following the strategic approach of Test, Track, Treat where testing forms the initial and crucial pillar of COVID response and management.

( With inputs from ANI )