National: India has set another record in COVID-19 tests conducted per day. Nearly 9 Lakh (8,99,864) tests have been conducted in a single day. This is the highest number of tests in a day so far. With this, the cumulative tests done have reached 3,09,41,264.
Even with such a high level of testing, the positivity is low. The positivity is 8.81 percent compared to the weekly national average of 8.84 percent.
India has also recorded the highest single-day recoveries. A total of 57,584 has recovered in the last 24 hours. This is higher than the confirmed cases added during the same period (55,079).
More patients are recovering and are being discharged from hospitals and home isolation. The total recoveries have crossed the 19 lakh mark (19,77,779). With this, the gap between recovered patients and active cases has crossed 13 Lakh on August 18.
The continuous increase in average daily recoveries has led to India’s Recovery-Rate touching 73.18 percent. The Case Fatality Rate (CFR) is also low with 1.92 percent. This is the result of collaborative and focused efforts by Centre and State/UT governments. This is due to the effective implementation of the TEST, TRACK, TREAT strategy of the Union Government.
Thirty states and UTs are reporting lower CFR than the national average. Aggressive TESTING leads to the early identification and isolation of positive cases. Also, efficient clinical treatment has ensured a low Fatality Rate.
Expanding of diagnostic labs has also ensured the exponentially growing number of tests being conducted across the country. Now, 1476 total labs are operational with 971 labs in the government sector and 505 private labs. These include:
• Real-Time RT PCR based testing labs: 755. Government: 450, Private: 305.
• TrueNat based testing labs: 604. Government: 487, Private: 117.
• CBNAAT based testing labs: 117. Government: 34, Private: 83.