India conducts record 8.5 lakh Covid-19 tests in a day

New Delhi: India today touched a new milestone with the highest number of COVID-19 tests in a single day so far, after a record high of 8,48,728 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative tests to 2,76,94,416 on Friday, said the Union Health Ministry.

World Health Organisation (WHO) has advised that a country needs 140 tests per day per million population. With focussed efforts of the Centre and effective implementation by the states/UTs, 34 of them have exceeded this figure.

The Ministry has advised the States and UTs to scale up the testing on a commensurate level with the prevailing positivity. A key component for the successful implementation of the Test, Track and Treat strategy has been the continuously expanding network of diagnostic labs across the country.

Around 1000 govt & 500 pvt labs emboldened Covid-19 fight

The network as on today consists of 1,451 labs with 958 in the government sector and 493 private labs.

“There are 749 Real-Time RT PCR based testing labs including 447 government and 302 private labs. A total of 586 TrueNat based testing labs are functioning in the country including 478 government and 108 private labs. There are 116 CBNAAT based testing labs in the country including 33 government labs and 83 private labs,” Ministry said.

As many as 64,553 new coronavirus cases and 1,007 deaths were reported in India in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The country’s coronavirus count stands at 24,61,191 including 6,61,595 active cases, 17,51,556 discharged/migrated and 48,040 deaths.