The Union Health Ministry on Tuesday informed the country has conducted at least 49 per cent of rapid antigen tests, while about 46 per cent of RT-PCR tests and nearly five per cent of tests were conducted through CB-NAT and TrueNat for the novel coronavirus, up till this morning.
According to the India Council of Medical Research (ICMR) data, India has performed about 11,96,15,857 COVID-19 tests which ICMR claimed are the second-highest number of tests in the world.
Rajesh Bhushan, Union health secretary during a media briefing said: "As of this morning, in India, 46 per cent of the total tests for detection of COVID-19 were RT-PCR tests, 49 per cent were Rapid Antigen Tests and five per cent tests were carried out using CB-NAT and TrueNat."
In the context of the high number of testing, Bhushan further informed that the positivity rate is reduced and it has come down to 7.18 per cent while the positivity rate of 24 hours in last week was 4.2 per cent, respectively.
"Over 11.96 crore COVID-19 tests conducted in India till now, which is the second-highest in the world. On average, 11,18,072 tests conducted daily last week," said Bhushan.
According to the Central government, India has registered an average of three new COVID deaths per million population in the last seven days on the other hand the global average stands at seven new deaths per million.
"In India, about 235 new cases per million population have been reported in the last 7 days. Globally, it is 482," he said.
At least 79 lakh people have recovered from covid19 which is highest in the world, stated the government. Approximately, on average, 51,476 people recovered daily last week, informed the government.
Bhushan said about 62 per cent of new COVID-19 deaths in the last 24 hours were reported from Maharashtra, Delhi, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala and Punjab. About 54 per cent of new cases of COVID-19 have been reported from Delhi, West Bengal, Kerala and Maharashtra.
Seeing the festive season around, the Union health secretary has cautioned people to follow COVID-19 appropriate behaviour to avoid any further surge of cases in the national capital.
( With inputs from ANI )
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