India’s cumulative Covid-19 positivity rate at 7.81%, says health ministry

As many as 14 states reported a positivity rate higher than the national figure. According to a chart alongside the tweet, Maharashtra’s testing rate was the highest at 20.4% followed by Puducherry and Kerala at 18.2% and 17.8%, respectively.

The ministry credited the low positivity rate to higher testing which, it said, leads to timely identification, prompt isolation and effective treatment.

Passengers wearing protective face masks stand in a queue on a platform to get tested for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), at a railway station, in New Delhi on October 5, 2020. (Reuters Photo)

It, however, cautioned some of the states and Union territories that have a positivity rate higher than the national average. The states have been advised to scale up testing. “India’s cumulative Positivity Rate is 7.81% and the daily figure is 3.8%. Several States/UTs are exhibiting Positivity Rate higher than the national average indicating a need for aggressive and widespread testing,” the health ministry wrote on Twitter.

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As many as 14 states reported a positivity rate higher than the national figure. According to a chart alongside the tweet, Maharashtra’s testing rate was the highest at 20.4% followed by Puducherry and Kerala at 18.2% and 17.8%, respectively. While Maharashtra is conducting 64,473 tests per million population, the other two are conducting 1,30,513 and 57,009 tests, according to data cited by the government.

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The other states with a higher positivity rate than 7.81% are Delhi (8.1%), West Bengal (8.3%), Sikkim (8.5%), Arunachal Pradesh (10.2%), Chhattisgarh (10.2%), Ladakh (10.7%), Andhra Pradesh (11.1%), Karnataka (11.1%), Goa (13%), Chandigarh (14.2%), and Nagaland (15.3%).

As on Thursday, the country’s Covid-19 tally stood at 7,706,946 with 715812 active cases and 116616 fatalities. Recoveries from the disease have gone up to 6,874,518.