New Delhi (NVI): India has registered a record number of single-day COVID-19 tests on the second consecutive day as a total of 4,42,031 samples were tested in the last 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry said today.
The daily testing has been increased as there has been no let-up in daily new infection rate. The total number of coronavirus positive cases in the country now stand at 13,36,861 with 31,358 deaths recorded so far. 8,49,431 patients have been cured or discharged so far.
48,661 fresh cases and 705 new deaths were recorded since yesterday.
Currently, India is the third worst-hit country after the US and Brazil. Union Health Ministry yesterday said that india has ramped up its testing capacity to 4.2 lakh tests in a day. The rate at which the infection is spreading remains nearly double than the US and Brazil at present.
For the first time, government labs set a new record of testing 3,62,153 samples. Private labs also scaled a new high of 79,878 samples tested in a single day, the Health Ministry said.
Apart from that, the Central Government has advised all States to keep up with the strategy of aggressive testing, tracking and treatment which may initially lead to a high number of daily positive cases but would eventually achieve a decline as has been demonstrated after Union Govt’s efforts in Delhi.
In another development, North Korea has imposed lockdown on the border city of Kaesong after the country’s first suspected case of the novel coronavirus.
According to North Korean state media KCNA, its leader Kim Jong Un convened an emergency politburo meeting yesterday to implement a “maximum emergency system and issue a top-class alert” to contain the virus.
Meanwhile, over 16 million coronavirus cases have been confirmed worldwide with around 6,44,000 deaths and approximately 9.23 million people recovered.
-ARK
