The country reported the lowest number of new cases of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in at least a month, with 59,980 new infections reported on Monday.
India has reported 6,681,937 Covid-19 cases to date, according to data collected by the HT panel.
On Monday, 903 recent deaths from Covid-19 were reported, as the total number rose to 1.03,622.
India had reported the first death due to the viral infection on March 12.
Data from the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoH & FW) showed that the number of Covid-19 cases in the country has remained below one million.
Also read: India maintains a Covid-19 positivity rate below 10%: Government
The number of active cases is indicative of the national burden due to viral infection.
On Monday, around a million (m) tests were performed, as the cumulative count reached around 80m.
On January 23, when the first Covid-19 test was conducted in the country, India had only one laboratory, the National Institute of Virology of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in Pune.
The Pune facility was only equipped to conduct Covid-19 testing, using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) technology.
As of April 1, ICMR authorities approved 151 laboratories, whose counts gradually rose to 254, 676 and 1,206 in May, June and July, respectively.
Currently, there are 1,874 labs, run by government and private entities, that are ICMR approved to conduct Covid-19 testing.
In March, the country was testing 10,000 swab samples a day. Now, you have the capacity to run up to 1.5 million tests per day.
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