The Center has advised Union states and territories to increase testing as part of measures to keep the rise in Covid-19 cases under control.
“With a continuous increase in daily cases in European and American countries, India is taking all precautionary measures to control the trajectory of the disease. In view of the increase in Covid cases in some of the northern states of India, the Center has informed all states and UT [Union territories] to increase testing, “the Union Health Ministry said in a statement.
After falling to 3.4%, India’s daily positivity rate, or the number of samples testing positive among those tested, has remained at just over 4%. Experts say that the spread of the infection is under control if the positivity rate stays at 5% or less for about two weeks.
India has conducted a million tests daily and has conducted 130 million since the country began testing in mid-January.
Delhi has reported a third increase in the number of cases since the second week of October. The highest cases, 8,593, were recorded on November 11, and the majority of deaths in one day (131) were recorded on November 18. Delhi has been conducting the highest number of tests per million inhabitants.
States such as Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Rajasthan have reported the highest new cases, but perform fewer tests per million than the national average of 94,679, according to data from the Health Ministry.
Of the 564 deaths reported Friday, 83% occurred in 10 states. Maharashtra topped the list with 155 deaths, followed by Delhi (118) and West Bengal (50).
With the number of cases and the positivity rate slightly lower than last week, experts believe that the higher number of deaths in Delhi is due to the cases that had been previously reported. “The increase in the number of deaths is not unexpected. There is always a lag between the increase in the number of cases and the deaths. It is the time between the diagnosis of people; his hospitalization and death. Also, when … the number of cases is huge, the number of deaths will also be higher. But the case fatality rate is still 1.57%, “said Dr. Rajinder K Dhamija of Lady Hardinge Medical College.
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