With 140 million Covid-19 tests, India crosses major landmark

On a day the latest numbers from the Union health ministry showed that India’s caseload of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) has crossed the 9.4 million mark, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) data showed that the total number of samples tested for Covid-19 in the country, too, have crossed a major milestone-140 million.

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“Testing update for Covid-19: Total samples tested up to 29 November 2020-14,03,79,976. Samples tested on 29 November 2020-8,76,173,” the government-run ICMR tweeted on Monday.

 

COVID-19 Testing Update. For more details visit: https://t.co/dI1pqvXAsZ @MoHFW_INDIA @DeptHealthRes #ICMRFIGHTSCOVID19 #IndiaFightsCOVID19 #CoronaUpdatesInIndia #COVID19 #Unite2FightCorona pic.twitter.com/Msxvz13qsb

— ICMR (@ICMRDELHI) November 30, 2020

On November 21, the Ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW) had announced that India had crossed the “landmark” of 130 million tests, with the last 10 million coming in just 10 days. Thus, since the country’s first swab sample was tested on January 23, the rise from 10 million tests to 140 million has been as follows: 10 million (July 7), 20 million (August 3), 30 million (August 17), 40 million (August 29), 50 million (September 8), 60 million (September 17), 70 million (September 26), 80 Million (October 6), 90 million (October 14), 100 million (October 23), 110 million (November 2), 120 million (November 11), 130 million (November 21) and 140 million (November 29).

Overall, India is among the select group of countries which have conducted such a high number of Covid-19 tests. The United States, which is the worst-hit, has conducted more tests than any other country. Meanwhile China, where the virus originated and spread from last year, comes next.

India’s current Covid-19 tally stands at 9,431,691 after 38,772 new infections were logged in the last 24 hours, in addition to 443 new deaths, as per the health ministry’s data on Monday. This includes 8,847,600 recovered cases, 446,952 active cases and 137,139 deaths. Later in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair a meeting via video conferencing with Covid-19 vaccine developing teams from Gennova Biopharma, Biological E and Dr Reddy’s. On Saturday, the prime minister had visited vaccine development centres at Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Pune.