India testing 1.1 lakh COVID-19 samples in a day: ICMR chief

India is testing about 1.1 lakh COVID-19 samples in a day at 612 labs, ICMR Director-General Dr Balram Bhargava said on Tuesday.

Bhargava said the number of labs to test the samples have increased from one lab in January to 612 labs now.

" In January we had just one lab for testing, National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune. On February 28, we had 14 public labs. On March 31, we had 125 public labs and 52 private labs for testing. Today we have 612 labs, out of which 430 are public labs and 182 are private labs. The testing has gone up in the last few months and 1.1 lakh samples are tested daily," he said at the regular media briefing here on the COVID-19 situation.

Bhargava said India has low fatality rate in COVID-19 infections.

" In terms of fatality rate, we have surprisingly found a low fatality rate in India, which is very good because it is the ultimate thing. Ultimately we are interested in patients surviving, whether he gets COVID-19, or does not COVID-19, he has to survive. There are several hypothesis on this, that we are living in bad hygiene, we have higher immunity, we have been given certain injections in the past. But all these are hypothesis but we cannot say anything clearly on any factor. Hope it continues," he said.

Bhargava said that India is tackling COVID-19 effectively.

"In India, we have a very high recovery rate, a very low fatality rate, the number of cases per lakh population is also very low compared to the rest of the world. We have also ramped up testing. These are the four pillars as far as the tackling COVID-19 is concerned and we are effectively tackling it," he said.

He also said that guidelines have been issued to states for immediate testing for symptomatic migrant workers.

"Most states have been working with the National Tuberculosis Elimination Program (NTEP) to deploy TrueNAT machines for COVID-19 testing. Indigenous manufacturers have been hand-held. They are delivering well," he said.

Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry said that the recovery rate of COVID-19 cases in India has been improving considerably while the fatality rate is among the lowest in the world.

"A total of 60,490 patients have recovered so far from COVID-19. The recovery rate continues to improve and at present it is 41.61 per cent. The fatality rate is among the lowest in the world and it is at 2.87 per cent now," he said.

Agarwal further said that COVID-19 cases in India were being reported at a much lower rate per lakh population than the world average.

"If 69.9 cases per lakh population have been reported across the world, in India the number is near 10.7 cases per lakh population," he said, adding that this comparison was based on absolute numbers.

( With inputs from ANI )