Till Friday, 1,58,49,068 COVID tests had been conducted in the country (Representational)

New Delhi:

India, the third worst-hit country in the global coronavirus tally after US and Brazil, has gradually ramped-up its COVID-19 testing capacity and has conducted over 4.2 lakh tests in a day, the Union Health Ministry said Saturday, crediting the increase to number of labs for the achievement. The development comes even as the country struggles to bring down the rate at which the infection is spreading which remains nearly double than the US and Brazil.

When the outbreak began in January, India, a country of over 130 crore people, had only one lab equipped to conduct the COVID-19 test. But within six months, the number of labs, certified to conduct the coronavirus test, has risen to 1,301. This also includes the private labs who have acquired test kits and have joined the fight against coronavirus.

The country is also witnessing a steady rise in Tests Per Million (TPM) with an increase in the number of labs and adoption of the centre’s ‘test, track, treat’ strategy. With 4,20,898 samples tested in the past 24 hours, the Tests Per Million or TPM has increased to 11,485 and it continues to maintain an upward trend, the ministry said.

However, the milestone comes as India’s rate of daily percentage increase in coronavirus cases was 3.7 per cent, compared to 1.7 per cent in the US and 1.9 per cent in Brazil. At this rate, India could overtake Brazil in around one month and US in just over two months.

Till Friday, more than 1.58 crore COVID-19 tests had been conducted in the country. 3.5 lakh tests are now being conducted every day over the last one week, the ministry said.

“The Union government has advised all state and UT governments to keep up the strategy of ‘Test, Track and Treat’ with aggressive testing which may lead to higher number of daily positive cases initially but would eventually achieve a decline as has been demonstrated after the central government’s targeted efforts in the National Capital Territory of Delhi,” the ministry said in a statement.

With increased testing of samples for coronavirus, the fatality rate has significantly dropped to 2.35 per cent on Saturday and the recovery rate has surged to 63.54 per cent. “India has one of the lowest fatality rates in the world,” the health ministry said.

The downward trend in fatality rate indicates the collective efforts of the centre, state and UT governments have helped in checking the mortality rate of coronavirus, it stated.

With 8,49,431 recoveries, the number of recovered cases have outnumbered the active cases by 3,93,360.

However, with 48,916 fresh cases on Saturday, India’s COVID-19 tally zoomed past 13 lakh today, just two days after it crossed the 12-lakh mark, while the death count mounted to 31,358, the ministry said.

(With inputs from PTI)