New Delhi (NVI): The Union Health Ministry today said that a number of states have reported lower COVID-19 positivity rate than the national average of 6.73 per cent, while the states’ tests per million are also higher than the national average.
According to the health ministry statement, the Union, State and Union Territory governments have made a joint effort to effectively manage the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
As part of the coordinated efforts, the Union government has emphasized on increasing testing, prompt contact tracing and timely clinical management of the cases, the statement said.
It has also helped the states to significantly ramp up testing capacities. This has resulted in reduced positivity in the country. Therefore, the current national positivity rate stands at 6.73 per cent, it added.
As per the data available on July 5, the states with their positivity rate less than the national average and tests per million higher than the national average are— Puducherry (5.55%), Chandigarh (4.36%), Assam (2.84%), Tripura (2.72%), Karnataka (2.64%), Rajasthan (2.51%), Goa (2.5%), and Punjab (1.92%).
However, in Delhi, the efforts being made by the UT were significantly bolstered by the Central Government to ensure an increase in testing, the ministry said.
Tests were ramped up through increased RT-PCR testing along with the new Rapid Antigen Point-of-Care (POC) tests which gives results in only about 30 minutes.
“As a result of concerted and focused efforts by Government of India to augment efforts, the average number of samples being tested per day which was only 5481 (June 1-5) has witnessed a huge increase to reach an average of 18,766 samples per day between July 1 to 5,” it said.
In spite of significantly increased testing in Delhi, the positivity rate has seen a substantial decrease from about 30 per cent to 10 per cent in the last three weeks, the statement added.
-RJV/ARK
