India continues to scale new peaks in COVID-19 tests

• More than 11.70 lakh samples tested for 2 consecutive days
• Despite the very high testing levels, Daily Positivity rate is below 7.5% and Cumulative Positivity Rate is less than 8.5%

After having successfully achieved the goal of enhancing the daily testing capacity to more than 10 lakhs daily tests, India has scaled new peaks in COVID-19 testing for the last two successive days. For these two successive days, more than 11.70 lakh samples have been tested across the country. 11,69,765 samples were tested in the last 24 hours.

No other country has achieved these levels of very high daily testing.

With this steep exponential rise in daily testing, the cumulative tests are nearing 4.7 crore. The cumulative tests as on date have reached 4,66,79,145.

Even with this very high daily testing, the daily Positivity Rate is still below 7.5%, while cumulative Positivity Rate is less than 8.5%. These results reflect the successful Centre-led strategy of TEST TRACK TREAT, being effectively implemented by most of the States/UTs.

The sustained higher testing on a wide scale enables early diagnosis, prompt isolation and timely hospitalisation. Effective treatment based on Standard Treatment Protocol both in supervised home isolation and in hospitals, also results in lower mortality rate. With the aim to reduce the fatality rate below 1%, India’s Case Fatality Rate (CFR) has touched 1.74% following a gradient of steady and sustained decline.

India’s substantial increase in the testing levels is anchored in the daily expanding diagnostic lab network across the country. As on date, with 1025 labs in the government sector and 606 private labs, the country-wide network is strengthened with 1631 total lab facilities.

These include:

• Real-Time RT PCR based testing labs: 827 (Govt: 465 + Private: 362)
• TrueNat based testing labs: 683 (Govt: 526 + Private: 157)
• CBNAAT based testing labs: 121 (Govt: 34 + Private: 87)