Covid-19 tests in India cross 18-crore mark

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India has demonstrated an exponential increase in the number of Covid-19 cumulative tests and crossed the landmark of 18 crore (18,02,53,315) total tests today. As many as 9,16,951 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours. Progressive countrywide expansion in testing infrastructure has played a crucial role in the steep rise of testing numbers.</p>
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With 2316 testing labs in the country including 1201 government laboratories and 1115 private laboratories, the daily testing capacity has got a substantial boost. High level of comprehensive testing on a sustained basis has also resulted in bringing down the national positivity rate. The cumulative rate continues to decline as total tests cross 18 crore. The national cumulative positivity rate is 5.79 per cent today. It has reduced from 8.93 per cent to 5.79 per cent in a span of five months. Bihar has the lowest Positivity Rate with 1.44 per cent while four other states/UTs have a positivity rate less than the national average.</p>
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India’s Tests per Million (TPM) stands at 130618.3 today. With the increase in testing infrastructure, the TPM has also increased exponentially. 22 States/UTs have better tests per million population than the national average while 13 states and UTs have lower tests per million population compared to the national figure, indicating the need for higher testing in these regions. India also registered 19,253 new recoveries in the same duration which has led to a further contraction of the Active Caseload.</p>
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India’s present active caseload of 2,24,190 consists of just 2.15% of India's Total Positive Cases. The total recovered cases are at 10,056,651 today. The Recovery Rate has improved to 96.41 per cent. The gap between Recovered cases and Active cases is steadily increasing and presently stands at 9,832,461. 78.89 per cent of the new recovered cases is contributed by 10 States/UTs. Kerala saw 5,324 persons recovering from Covid. Maharashtra and West Bengal reported 2,890 and 1,136 new recoveries, respectively.</p>
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Meanwhile, 18,222 cases were registered in the last 24 hours. Ten States/UTs have contributed 79.83 per cent of the new cases. Kerala reported 5,142 cases in the last 24 hours. Maharashtra recorded 3,693 new cases while Karnataka reported 970 daily cases yesterday. 76.32 per cent of the 228 case fatalities that have been reported in the past 24 hours are from seven states/UTs with Maharashtra reporting 73 deaths. Kerala also saw a figure fatality count of 23 followed by 21 in West Bengal.</p>
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The third massive countrywide mock drill conducted yesterday for ensuring the readiness of all preparations and simulate a seamless and glitch free vaccine administration, covered 4895 session sites across 615 districts in 33 States/UTs.</p>