India conducts 7 lakh Covid tests in a single day, 500 tests per minute in last 24 hours

India has also recorded the highest number of recoveries in a single day as 53,879 patients were discharged on Saturday.

A health worker collects sample of a person for Covid-19 test via Rapid Antigen Testing, at Manipuri Basti in Guwahati (representational image) | PTI

New Delhi: In a new high, India has scaled the peak of COVID-19 testing with more than seven lakh tests in a single day, the country has conducted nearly 500 tests per minute in the last 24 hours, a senior health ministry official said.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, India has performed about 2,41,06,535 total tests so far. According to the health ministry, the nation has been doing more than six lakh tests in a single day for the last several days. In the past 24 hours, India has done about 7,19,364 tests.

“Such high level of testing will also lead to a high number of daily positive cases, however, states have been advised to firmly focus on comprehensive tracking, prompt isolation, and effective treatment, following the Test, Track, Treat strategy. States reporting higher Case Fatality Rate (CFR) have been able to bring fatality rate below 1 per cent,” said the official.

Besides, India has recorded the highest number of recoveries in a single day with 53,879 COVID patients having recovered and discharged on Saturday, stated the official.

“With this, the total number of recovered cases has touched another high of 14,80,884 today. This is more than twice the number of active cases (6,28,747 today). The number of recovered cases has touched another high of 2.36 times the active cases, which are all under medical attention either in-home isolation or in hospitals.”

With a higher number of recovered patients, the recovery rate now stands at 68.78 per cent. “The widening difference between recovered and active cases, indicative of the higher number of recoveries as compared to those either in hospitals or in-home isolation, is 8,52,137 on Sunday,” stated the official.

“Higher number of recoveries is a result of the focused implementation of the various actions taken collectively by the Centre and State/UT governments to combat the virus pandemic. Due to these efforts, the CFR has further slumped, touching an improved rate of 2.01 per cent as on August 9,” said the official.