India conducts over 4.2 lakh COVID-19 tests in single day

For the first time, a record number of more than 4.2 lakh COVID tests have been conducted in a single day by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Saturday.

According to an official release of the Union Health Ministry, with 4,20,898 samples tested in the last 24 hours, the Tests Per Million (TPM) have further increased to 11,485 and cumulative testing to 1,58,49,068 and both continue to maintain the upward trend.

"This elevated number comes on the heels of 3,50,000 tests having been done every day consistently over the last one week," the Ministry said.

A strong factor contributing to this achievement is the persistent increase in the number of labs from merely one in January 2020 to 1,301 today, including 902 government labs and 399 private ones, the Ministry said.

"The Union Government has advised all State/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 Union Government's targeted efforts in Delhi," the Health Ministry said.

The Case Fatality Rate continues on its downward trend which means that the collective efforts of the Centre and State/UT governments have resulted in checking the mortality due to COVID-19.

"It has significantly dipped to 2.35 per cent on Saturday. India has one of the lowest fatality rates in the world," it said.

"As many as 32,223 COVID patients have recovered in the last 24 hours taking the cumulative number of recovered cases to 8,49,431. The recovery rate has achieved another high of 63.54 per cent," it added.

The gap between recovered patients and active COVID-19 cases has further increased to 3,93,360, the Ministry said.

According to the Union Health Ministry, India reported a spike of 48,916 coronavirus cases on Saturday, taking the total COVID-19 positive cases to 13,36,861 including 4,56,071 active cases, and 8,49,431 cured/discharged/migrated cases.

With 757 deaths in the last 24 hours, the cumulative toll reached 31,358.

( With inputs from ANI )