India’s Covid-19 count crosses 30 lakh mark
NEW DELHI : India’s confirmed corona virus cases on Saturday crossed the 30 lakh mark, according to private aggregator Covid19india.org. As per the latest figures, the number of infections rose to 30,26,806 and death toll climbed to 56,648. India, the third country worst hit by the Covid-19 pandemic
Currently, India has 7,08,558 active cases while 22,61,051 people have been treated and discharged. The recovery rate has soared past 74.69 per cent and the case fatality rate has also dropped further to 1.87 per cent, the Union Health Ministry said. Also, a cumulative total of 3,44,91,073 samples have been tested up to August 21 with 10,23,836 samples being tested on Friday, the highest done in a day so far.
With cases rising rapidly, states like Haryana, Punjab and UP have declared weekend lock downs. Five most affected states by total tally of cases at present are Maharashtra (6,57,450), Tamil Nadu (367,460), Andhra Pradesh (334,940), Karnataka (264,546), and Uttar Pradesh (177,239).
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) on Saturday said that there were more than 1 million COVID-19 tests across India in the past 24 hours.
“Keeping to its promise of exponentially increasing the daily COVID-19 tests to 10 lakhs, India has crossed the significant milestone in its fight against COVID today.
In a testament to the determined, focused, consistent and coordinated efforts of the Centre and the State/UT governments, India has conducted 1 million tests in the past 24 hours. With 10,23,836 tests done yesterday, India has achieved its resolve to test 10 lakh samples daily, said the MoHFW.
MoHFW added, “As has been reported from States/UTs that have pushed ahead with aggressive testing, there is a commensurate decline in the positivity rate.
Although higher number of tests will initially lead to a rise in the positivity rate, it will eventually lower when combined with other measures such as prompt isolation, efficient tracking, and timely effective and clinical management.”
Dr Balram Bhargava, Director General, ICMR said, “In a diverse country like India, for equitable access to testing, optimization of resources based on the evolving epidemic was an essential part of the sustainable scaling up.
Notably, India now has a strong network of 1511 labs comprising 983 labs in the government sector and 528 private labs. These include• Real-Time RT PCR based testing labs: 778 (Govt: 458 + Private: 320) • TrueNat based testing labs: 615 (Govt: 491 + Private: 124) • CBNAAT based testing labs: 118 (Govt: 34 + Private: 84)
