India is focusing on relentless testing, as part of its strategy of ‘Test, Track and Treat’, as the number of Covid-19 tests conducted in a day has risen to cross 8 lakh a day.

In the 24 hours to Thursday evening, a record high of 8,30,391 tests were conducted in the country, as it gears up to reach the testing capacity of 10 lakh tests per day.

The authorities’ resolve to follow aggressive testing as the first important step in the early detection and isolation of Covid-19 positive cases has resulted in a sharp increase in the week-wise average daily tests – from around 2.3 lakh in the first week of July 2020 to more than 6.3 lakh in the current week.

The cumulative testing so far has jumped to 2,68,45,688 crore. The Tests Per Million has seen a sharp increase to 19,453, the health ministry said in a release.

A strong determinant of this milestone has been the sustained expansion of testing labs across the country. From merely one lab in January 2020, the country is today enriched by 1433 labs with 947 in the government sector and 486 private labs.

Case Fatality Rate further improves to 1.96%
India touched another peak of the highest ever single day recoveries of 56,383 in the 24 hours to Thursday evening. With this, the total number of recovered Covid-19 patients stands at 16,95,982.

There were, however, 66,999 fresh cases – another high – continuing the trend of 50,000+ cases for quite some time. As many as 942 deaths in the 24-hour period take the number of total fatalities so far to 47,033.

With increasing number of recoveries, the Recovery Rate has crossed 70% and stands at 70.77%, the case mortality among Covid patients has further regressed to 1.96%, and steadily declining.

The record high recoveries have ensured that the actual caseload of the country which is the Active Cases has reduced and currently is only 27.27% of the total positive cases. The recoveries exceed the active cases (6,53,622) by more than 10 lakh.