India has crossed the 9 crore mark of COVID-19 testing across the country on Wednesday. About 11,45,015 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
The Ministry informed, “With 11,45,015 tests conducted in the last 24 hours, the cumulative tests now stand at 9,00,90,122.” The testing capacity has multiplied manifold with more than 1,900 labs across the country and now more than 15 lakh samples can be tested every day.
India crosses a New Landmark in Testing.
Total Tests cross a Record of 9 crore.https://t.co/5fx16kmm8z pic.twitter.com/8EldbC8YBR
— Ministry of Health (@MoHFW_INDIA) October 14, 2020
An official statement stated the daily testing capacity has got a substantial boost with 1,935 testing labs in the country including 1,112 government laboratories and 823 private laboratories. The positivity rate is low in 20 states/UTs than the national average, which is at 8.04 percent.
The active cases stand at 8,26,876 as of today and comprise only 11.42 percent of the total positive cases of the country as per current data. In the last 24 hours 74,632 COVID cases have recovered and discharged whereas, 63,509 were the new confirmed cases.
A higher number of recoveries have helped the national Recovery Rate to further improve to 87.05 percent.
The ministry stated that the gap between recovered cases and active cases is 54,75,051 and 79 percent of the new recovered cases are observed to be concentrated in 10 States/Union Territories like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and Delhi.
COVID-19 Testing Update. For more details visit: https://t.co/dI1pqvXAsZ @MoHFW_INDIA @DeptHealthRes #ICMRFIGHTSCOVID19 #IndiaFightsCOVID19 #CoronaUpdatesInIndia #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/pYTHNY53h9
— ICMR (@ICMRDELHI) October 14, 2020
But Maharashtra continues to contribute the maximum with more than 15,000 single day recoveries. About 63,509 new confirmed cases were recorded in the last 24 hours.
A major share of new cases is from 10 states and UTs. Kerala has outnumbered Maharashtra with the highest number of newly reported cases.
The top three contributing states are Kerala, Maharashtra, and Karnataka which reported more than 8,000 cases followed by Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, both contributing more than 4,000 cases each.730 fatalities cases were reported in the last 24 hours.
India scales a new peak in #COVID19 testing! pic.twitter.com/QdOXQvzaPw
— Ministry of Health (@MoHFW_INDIA) October 14, 2020
Out of which only 80 percent are concentrated in 10 states/UT and more than 25 percent of new fatalities reported are from Maharashtra. Almost all states/UTs of the country are affected by COVID-19.
Given the seasonal pattern of epidemic-prone diseases observed every year in our country like Dengue, Malaria, Seasonal Influenza, Leptospirosis, Chikungunya, and Enteric fever, can not only present as a diagnostic dilemma but may co-exist in COVID cases.
This poses a challenge in clinical and laboratory diagnosis of COVID and has a bearing on the clinical management and patient outcomes.
Therefore new guidelines for management of co-infection of COVID-19 with other seasonal epidemic-prone diseases has been issued by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.