India conducts nearly 9 lakh COVID-19 tests in single day, highest so far
Aug 18, 2020
New Delhi [India], Aug 18 : India has set another record of conducting nearly nine lakh COVID-19 tests in a single day, which is the highest so far.
8,99,864 tests have been conducted in a single day. With this, the cumulative tests have reached 3,09,41,264, read an official statement.
Even with such a high level of testing, the positivity has remained low, i.e. 8.81 per cent compared to the weekly national average, i.e. 8.84 per cent.
India has also recorded the highest single-day recoveries of 57,584 in the last 24 hours. This is higher than the confirmed cases added during the same period (55,079).
"With more patients recovering and being discharged from hospitals and home isolation (in case of mild and moderate cases), the total recoveries have crossed the 19 lakh mark (19,77,779). With this the gap between the recovered patients and the active cases has crossed 13 lakh today (13,04,613)," the statement said.
Continuous increase in average daily recoveries has led to India's recovery rate touching 73.18 per cent and a low Case Fatality Rate (CFR) of 1.92 per cent.
"As a result of collaborative and focussed efforts by the Centre and state/UT governments built on effective implementation of the Test, Track, Treat strategy of the union government, 30 states/UTs are reporting lower CFR than the national average," the statement said.
With a spike of 55,079 cases and 876 deaths in the last 24 hours, India's COVID-19 count reached 27,02,743 on Tuesday, according to the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry.
The country's COVID-19 count includes 6,73,166 active cases and 19,77,780 discharged/migrated patients. With 876 deaths, the toll due to the disease has risen to 51,797.
The death toll breached the 50-thousand mark on Monday, according to the ministry.