More than 37,000 new cases have been detected in the past 24 hours, the center said this morning.
New Delhi:
The government’s “ultimate goal” is to reduce COVID-19 positivity rates to 5 percent and maintain aggressive testing levels, the Department of Health said on Tuesday, adding that 30 states and union territories already had figures below the national average.
The national positivity rate, which is the number of people infected as a percentage of those tested, was 11.14% on Tuesday morning. This percentage has increased from 10% a week ago, 9.7% two weeks ago and 8% four weeks ago.
The overall average, calculated since April 23, is 8%.
Also on Tuesday morning, 3.34 lakh coronavirus tests were performed in the past 24 hours. That figure went from 2.87 a week ago, 2.41 two weeks ago and 1.87 four weeks ago.
As increased levels of testing reveal more COVID-19 patients across the country, the daily addition to the national caseload has increased dramatically over the past week.
On Tuesday morning, the government said 37,148 new cases had been detected in the past 24 hours; more than 40,000 people had been found in the previous 24 hours.
India has more than 11.55 lakh cases of COVID-19 so far, with 28,084 virus-related deaths. The total number of cases has increased by more than 4.5 lakh since July 6, when India crossed the seven lakh mark.
“The country has handled the COVID crisis relatively well. The center supports states. The core teams advise and also visit states to support their efforts,” the government said today.
People have also been warned not to let down their guards yet. “Precautions must be taken and more energy must be injected into our fight against the disease,” the government stressed.
The government also said it was performing 180 coronavirus tests per million, compared to the 140 per million advised by the WHO (World Health Organization).
“Despite limited resources, we could increase the case fatality (or death) rate to 2.43%,” the government said, adding that the credit was going to doctors and health workers.
The ministry also said the death rate – or the number of deaths as a percentage of the total number of cases – was among the lowest in the world.
The national death rate, or case fatality, is 2.43 percent, the government said, praising frontline staff like doctors, nurses, and paramedics and sanitation for the low figure.
Case fatality rates have fallen over the past four weeks; it was 3.2% at the time before declining to 2.8% two weeks ago. Last week it was 2.6%.
