India has exceeded the 140 tests per day per million population for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) recommendation by World Health Organization (WHO) by nearly six times, the Union ministry of health and family welfare said on Monday.
“India has exceeded 140 tests/day/million population as advised by @WHO by nearly 6 times. Several States/UTs have demonstrated better performance than the national average,” the health ministry said in a tweet.
According to a graph posted along with the tweet, India is on an average conducting 828 tests per day per million population, with Delhi, Goa and Karnataka performing the highest number of average daily tests at 2,717, 1,319, and 1,261 respectively while Rajasthan was the lowest with 280 tests.
Nine states are conducting more than 1,000 Covid-19 tests per day per million population, according to the ministry. As of Sunday, a total of 7,99,82,394 tests had been conducted in the country with 989,860 samples on that day, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research’s (ICMR’s) data.
The government has also credited massive testing across states for the country’s sustained low Covid-19 fatality rate (CFR). India had conducted the first test for the viral infection on January 23 at ICMR’s Pune-based National Institute of Virology (NIV). The country has now expanded its testing network by 1,751 laboratories, including those from the government and private sector.
India recorded a one-day jump of 74,442 Covid-19 cases and 903 fatalities in the last 24 hours pushing its tally past 6.6 million, the health ministry’s data showed on Monday morning. Recoveries from the viral disease have soared past 5.58 million.
