More than 5 lakh tests for coronavirus have been conducted in India in a single day for the past two consecutive days.
On Sunday, 26 July, India tested a total of 5,15,000 samples and on Monday, a total of 5,28,082 samples were tested, as per the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday that efforts were being made to scale-up the daily COVID-19 testing in India to 10 lakh. He made these remarks while inaugurating COVID-19 testing facilities at Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) laboratories in Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata, via a video conference.
“In January, we had only one centre for the corona test, while today about 1,300 labs are working in the whole country for corona testing. Today, more than 5 lakh tests are being conducted in India every day. In the coming weeks, we are trying to upscale it to 10 lakh per day,” he said.
The ministry stated that this was the outcome of the Union government's focus on aggressive testing, tracking and treatment policy to curb the spread of coronavirus.
As on 27 July, 1,73,34,885 samples have been tested so far.
With a massive 47,704 people testing positive for coronavirus on 27 July, the total tally in India is near the 15 lakh-mark. There are 4,96,988 active cases as on date, 9,52,723 persons have been discharged and 33,425 deaths recorded so far.
The fatality rate from COVID-19 currently stands at 2.28 percent in India as compared to global average of about 4 percent. The recovery rate stand at 63.92 percent.
In India, the human trial of the country's first indigenous vaccine candidate 'Covaxin' began on Monday at the Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital in Bhubaneswar.
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