A total of 8,23,992 samples were tested for the novel coronavirus on Tuesday, taking the total number of samples tested to 3,76,51,512 so far, informed the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Wednesday.

In a tweet today, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) said that testing has worked as an ‘effective’ tool to contain the spread of the deadly virus.

“India has exponentially scaled its TESTING from one in January to 10 lakhs/day in August 2020,” the tweet read.

COVID-19 Testing Update . For more details visit: https://t.co/dI1pqvXAsZ @MoHFW_INDIA @DeptHealthRes #ICMRFIGHTSCOVID19 #IndiaFightsCOVID19 #CoronaUpdatesInIndia #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/tATuvKKKT7

— ICMR (@ICMRDELHI) August 26, 2020

“With Positivity Rate progressively falling, testing has worked as an effective tool to limit the spread of #Covid19 infection,” the Ministry said in another tweet.

According to a GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) shared by the Ministry, the average daily positivity rate in India has fallen from 11 patients per 100 in July to about eight patients in the last week of August.

Also read: India’s Covid-19 tally over 3.2 million, recovery rate rises to 76.29%

With 67,151 new Covid-19 cases, India surpassed the 32-lakh mark in the last 24 hours, according to the MoHFW.