Testing ramped up to 9L a day, positivity rate now 6.1%

New Delhi: In what are the best numbers in a while, India conducted close to 9 lakh tests on a single day while the daily positivity rate fell to 6.1% on Tuesday, reports Sushmi Dey. The lower positivity rate, despite higher testing, is seen as a reassuring development as the daily count of cases has risen in the past couple of months.

The government said the trends in Covid cases over the last few days (August 13-17), especially on testing and deaths, were welcome news, but added that there was no room for laxity in testing and containment measures. “If we look at the daily cases since August 3, it has gone down from over 64,000 to 55,000. There is a reducing trend. But five days is a short span in a pandemic, so there is no room for complacence,” health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said.

The number of deaths dropped during this period — from 1,007 on August 13 to 876 on Tuesday — following a constant downward trend. Health ministry data showed that average daily positivity rate had reduced from a little over 10% in the second week of July (July 8-14) to nearly 7.8% in the week of August 12-18, despite increased testing. Similarly, average fatality rate has dropped from nearly 2.9% in first week of July (July 1-7) to 1.9% in the week of August 12-18.

Full report on www.toi.in