KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 24 (NNN-BERNAMA) — India achieved a significant milestone in its fight against COVID-19 pandemic by conducting over one million tests in a day.
According to a statement from the Indian High Commission in Malaysia sent to Bernama on Monday, with coordinated and consistent efforts by the central, state and the Union Territory (UT) governments, a total of 1,023,836 tests had been conducted last Saturday.
India has resolved to test 10 lakh samples daily (1 lakh = 100,000). With this achievement, the cumulative tests are more than 3.4 crore (1 crore = 10 million).
“The number of daily tests has been increasing on a steep climb. Average daily tests during the past three weeks also strongly depict the progress made in the enhancement of COVID-19 tests across the country,” the statement said.
It added that although a higher number of tests will initially lead to a rise in the positivity rate, it will eventually lower when combined with other measures such as prompt isolation, efficient tracking, and timely, effective and clinical management.
“Combined with enhanced testing, policy decisions of the Centre and the States/UTs have facilitated easy testing across the country,” it said.
Currently, India has a strong network of 1511 enhanced diagnostic labs comprising 983 labs in the government sector and 528 private labs.