The number of daily coronavirus disease (Covid-19) tests slumped by about 200,000 on Saturday after crossing the record one million mark a day before. The data released by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) showed that the country performed 8,01,147 Covid-19 tests in the past 24 hours. The overall tally stood at 3,52,92,220. On Friday, 10, 23, 836 tests were conducted.
“At times, this (low-test count) happens on weekends. There is a drop in the number of swab samples tested. However, it doesn’t mean that there is a decline in our testing capacity. We are capable of performing more than one million tests in a day,” said Dr Rajnikant Srivastava, spokesperson, ICMR.
The country had conducted the first Covid-19 test on January 23. The maiden case of the pathogen was detected on January 30 in Kerala after a medical student, who had returned from Wuhan in central China — the epicentre of the viral outbreak in the initial stages — was found to have contracted SARS-CoV-2 that causes the disease.
Initially, ICMR’s National Institute of Virology in Pune was the only laboratory that was equipped to conduct Covid-19 tests, which have now grown to a nationwide network of 1,511 labs, including many run by private healthcare facilities.
The recovery of Covid-19 patients is also growing progressively, according to the data released by the Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoH&FW) on Sunday.
The single-day Covid-19 recoveries have risen from 13,000 to 63,000 in the past two months.
On July 1, India had reported 13,157 per day Covid-19 recoveries that rose to 23, 672 on July 19; 46, 121 on August 6; and 63,631 on Saturday.
“The gap between Covid-19 recoveries and active cases is also growing by the day. This speaks volumes about how the country has managed to curb the infection rate. Our death rate is among the lowest in the world. Less than 1% of Covid-19 patients are on ventillator support at any given point of time. The epidemic is being managed effectively with our three-pronged strategy of test, track and treat ,” said a ministry official, requesting anonymity.
