India conducts over 1.17 lakh Covid-19 testing in last 24 hours: Govt

As experts have suggested that aggressive testing is crucial to control the outbreak, states and Union territories are progressively increasing their testing capacity.

India has conducted more than 1.17 lakh Covid-19 testing in the last 24 hours, keeping in line with its ‘test, track, treat’ strategy to prevent the coronavirus from spreading, the Union health ministry said on Thursday. The country crossed the milestone of conducting one million tests daily on August 21.

India on Wednesday recorded 78,357 new cases of the coronavirus disease. (HT Photo)

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said, “Over 11,70,000 tests have been done in last 24 hours. High levels of testing sustained over a period of time in widespread areas enable to diagnose cases early and facilitate seamless isolation and hospitalisation. It eventually leads to low mortality rate.”

As experts have suggested that aggressive testing is crucial to control the outbreak, states and Union territories are progressively increasing their testing capacity.

The health ministry said in a statement Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra are among others contributing the maximum to the overall number of test. “These three states account for nearly 34% of the total testing,” the ministry said.

India on Wednesday recorded 78,357 new cases of the coronavirus disease which pushed the nationwide tally to 3,769,524, according to Union health ministry dashboard.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a cumulative 4,33,24,834 samples have been tested up to August 31, with 10,16,920 of them being tested on Monday.

India’s daily testing capacity has crossed 10 lakh and the tests per million too have seen a sharp increase, reaching 31,394, the health ministry highlighted. Twenty-two states and union territories have tests per million better than the national average, it said.