New Delhi (NVI): India has scaled another peak today as the cumulative test for COVID-19 has surpassed five crore, Union Health Ministry said.
Aggressive and widespread testing have essayed an important role in India’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.
India has come a long way from conducting just one test from the lab at National Institute of Virology, Pune in January to 5,06,50,128 as on date with 10,98,621 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours testifying the enlarged testing capacity in the country, the statement added.
“The average daily tests conducted (week-wise) are demonstrating a consistent increase. This has registered a 3.2 times expansion from third week of July (3,26,971) to first week of September (10,46,470),” the ministry said.
Moreover, the average Tests Per Million per day have increased from 237 in the second week of July to 758 in the first week of September, it informed.
The statement further stated, in its Guidance Note on “Public Health Criteria to Adjust Public Health and Social Measures in the Context of COVID-19”, the WHO has advised countries to conduct 140 tests per day per million population for comprehensive surveillance for suspect cases. The average week-on-week data for India shows a rising improvement on this front. Expanding network of diagnostic labs has given a boost to tests per million.
“The TPM have seen a sharp rise from 6,396 on July 1 to 36,703 as of today,” the ministry said.
Meanwhile, the testing lab network in the country has also strengthened which as on today consists of 1,668 labs across the country. Out of those 1,035 labs are in the government sector and 633 private labs, it added.
-RJV
