COVID-19: With more than 8 lakh average tests every day, India scales up testing capacity

Collaborative efforts of the State/UT governments have led to India consistently ramping up its Coronavirus testing infrastructure to touch the capacity of 10 lakh tests/day, the Union Health Ministry said on Wednesday. In the last 24 hours, 8.23 lakh tests were conducted while the cumulative testing thus has reached 3.76 crores.

The 7-day average rolling numbers of tests/day indicate the determined, focussed, consistent and coordinated efforts of the Centre and the State/UT Governments in this direction, the Ministry said. Such a high level of testing on a sustained basis leads to early diagnosis which provides opportunities to isolate or hospitalise the positive cases adequately in advance. This in turn facilitates lower mortality rates, which now stands at 1.84%.

Expanded diagnostic lab network and facilitation for easy testing across the country have given a substantial boost. Building on this achievement, the Tests Per Million (TPM) have seen a sharp increase to 27,284.

Lab network

The growing network of testing labs offers expanded opportunities to strengthen the testing facilities across the country. Currently, there are 1,540 labs across India, including 992 labs in the government sector and 548 private labs

• Real-Time RT PCR based testing labs: 790 (Govt: 460 + Private: 330)
• TrueNat based testing labs: 632 (Govt: 498 + Private: 134)
• CBNAAT based testing labs: 118 (Govt: 34 + Private: 84)

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Coronavirus outbreak

India's COVID-19 case tally crossed 32 lakh on Wednesday after 67,151 fresh cases were reported in the country in the last 24 hours. The death toll rose to 59,449 after 1,059 patients succumbed to the respiratory disease. Meanwhile, 63,173 patients also recovered in the same period, taking the total to 24,67,758.

As of August 26, there are 7,07,267 active cases – those under medical supervision – in India.

Kicking off second phase of Coronavirus vaccine trials in India, Pune's Bharti Vidyapeeth's medical hospital on Wednesday, has administered two volunteers with Serum Institute of India's 'COVISHIELD' vaccine. While five volunteers were zeroed in, Medical Director Sanjay Lalwani, said that three of them showed anti-bodies, hence only two were administered the vaccine. 'COVISHIELD' is the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which will be manufactured by Serum Institute of India's (SII) — world's largest vaccine producer.

(AP Photo)

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