India on Saturday registered a record by crossing the landmark 20-crore total cumulative COVID-19 tests. Out of 20 crore total tests the country has conducted 7,40,794 tests in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare informed.
Progressive countrywide expansion in testing infrastructure has played a crucial role in the steep rise of testing numbers, an official statement by the ministry said.
"With 2,369 testing labs in the country including 1,214 government laboratories and 1,155 private laboratories, the daily testing capacity has got a substantial boost. The cumulative positivity rate is also declining and presently pegged at 5.39 per cent," it said.
High level of comprehensive testing on a sustained basis has also resulted in bringing down the national positivity rate. The higher daily testing combined with low daily cases have resulted in low positivity rate.
However, the country's total active caseload continued to follow a consistent downward slope. It has dropped to less than 1.5 lakh (1,48,590) today and is the lowest in eight months.
The present active caseload now consists of just 1.37 per cent of India's total positive cases. The country has seen less than 100 fatalities (95) in the past 24 hours.
A total number of vaccinated beneficiaries surpassed 54 lakhs (54,16,849) under the countrywide COVID-19 vaccination exercise, as per today's record till 8 am.
The number of beneficiaries being vaccinated every day has shown a consistent and progressive increase.
The ministry said India is the fastest country to reach the five million mark in COVID-19 vaccination. This feat was achieved in merely 21 days. Several other countries have had a head start of more than 60 days in the COVID-19 vaccination exercise.
