NEW DELHI: According to the recommendation of the World Health Organization (WHO), almost all states and UT in India are analyzing more than 140 samples “per day per million inhabitants,” said the health ministry, underlining that consistently higher tests have helped by reducing the positivity rate.
The national cumulative positivity rate fell in the last 11 days to 8.2%. Currently, six states and one UT have a positivity rate below 5%, while 22 are below the national average, indicating that the rate of spread of the infection is contained in many places. The national average of tests per day per million inhabitants is 865.
India has performed 60,323 tests per million inhabitants so far, while the United States has performed 344,858 and Brazil, which has the third highest number of total Covid cases reported so far, has performed 84,051 tests per million inhabitants.
Bihar, Mizoram, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Dadar & Nagar Haveli, and Himachal Pradesh have cumulative positivity rates below 5%. India has increased its testing capacity over the past six months with more than 1,900 laboratories under the ICMR network, including government and private.
The country’s testing capabilities have multiplied and more than 15 lakhs of samples can now be tested every day. With 11,94,321 tests on Wednesday, the accumulated tests in India have now crossed 8.34 crore.
Higher tests across wide regions lead to early identification of positive cases, rapid follow-up through efficient surveillance and tracing, and timely and effective treatment in homes or facilities and in hospitals for severe cases, said the ministry.
These measures together eventually lead to a lower death rate, he added. With the help of more recoveries and fewer new cases, the active case load remained below 10 lakh through the 17th of Wednesday. During Wednesday, a total of 78,524 new confirmed cases were reported, while 83,011 people were discharged in recovery.
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