Covid-19: Another 11.7 lakh tests done, daily positivity rate at 7.1%

As India tested more than 11.7 lakh samples to detect Covid-19 on Thursday, high testing levels helped keep the daily positivity rate under check at 7.1%. The total number of tests conducted across the country now stands at 4.66 crore, whereas the cumulative positivity rate is around 8.5%.

Sushmi Dey ,
TNN

Updated On Sep 5, 2020 at 06:07 AM IST

NEW DELHI: As India tested more than 11.7 lakh samples to detect Covid-19 on Thursday, high testing levels helped keep the daily positivity rate under check at 7.1%.

The total number of tests conducted across the country now stands at 4.66 crore, whereas the cumulative positivity rate is around 8.5%. Despite a significantly high recovery rate of over 77%, there are currently 8.31 lakh active cases.

According to health ministry data, five high burden states — Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu — account for 62% of active cases. These five states also account for 70% of the 68,472 deaths so far.

On Friday, the Centre held a review meeting with senior officials of 15 districts across four states of Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. These 15 districts — Chittoor, Prakasam, Mysuru, Bengaluru Urban, Ballari, Koppal, Dakshina Kannada, Davangere, Ludhiana, Patiala, Chennai, Coimbatore, Salem, Lucknow and Kanpur Nagar — have been exhibiting higher active caseload, fatality rates and a surge in Covid-19 cases for the past four weeks, the health ministry said.

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The ministry has asked these states to take specific steps, including limiting and eventually breaking the spread of infection by implementing stringent containment measures and following social distancing measures, strict perimeter control, and active house-to-house case search to address the problem.

States were also asked to ramp up testing in specific districts. Besides, the ministry also emphasised on effective monitoring of home isolation cases and early hospitalisation, in case of disease progression, to prevent deaths.

The ministry also advised states to ensure early admission for patients, especially in cases of co-morbid and elderly population, and following effective infection control measures in hospitals to safeguard healthcare workers from contracting the infection.