NEW DELHI: The seven-day moving average in daily tests conducted for detection of COVID-19 in India has significantly improved from 2.69 lakh on July 14 to 5.66 lakh on August 6, the Union health ministry said on Friday, as 2.2 crore tests have been done so far.
With India's cumulative testing rising from 1.2 crore on July 14 to 2.2 crore as on date, the COVID-19 positivity rate has seen an increase from 7.5 to 8.87 per cent during the same period, it said.
"Although higher number of tests will push the positivity rate initially, but as Delhi experience has amply shown, it will eventually lower when combined with other measures such as prompt isolation, tracking and timely clinical management," the ministry underlined.
In a testament to the consistent and coordinated efforts of the Centre and the state and Union Territory governments, India continues its track record of testing more than 6 lakh COVID-19 samples each day for the fourth successive day, it said.
Expanded diagnostic lab network and facilitation for easy testing across the country have given a boost, and with 6,39,042 tests conducted on Thursday, India has done 2,27,88,393 tests so far.
The tests per million (TPM) has seen a sharp increase to 16,513, the ministry said.
With 49,769 patients recuperating from the disease in 24 hours, the number of recoveries in the country has jumped to 13,78,105 on Friday pushing the recovery rate to a record high of 67.98 per cent while the fatality rate has gone down to 2.05 per cent.
"These two in tandem have enabled a higher and rising difference of more than 7.7 lakh between the number of recovered patients and active cases in India," the ministry said.
The recovery rate has increased from 51.08 per cent on June 15 to 67.98 per cent on August 7, while active cases which comprised 46.06 per cent of the total COVID-19 caseload on June 15 now account for 29.96 per cent, it said.
"Ramped up hospital infrastructure and emphasis on efficient treatment of hospitalised patients through the standard of care incorporated in the Clinical Treatment Protocol issued by the Centre, have effectively ensured improvement in the recovery rate," the ministry said.
It said the average daily recovered cases (seven day moving average) have increased from around 26,000 cases to 44,000 cases in the last two weeks.
Sustained efforts by the Centre, states and Union Territories through focused and coordinated containment, widespread testing combined with supervised isolation and effective treatment have ensured the decline in percentage of active cases and rise of the percentage of recoveries, the health ministry said.
Registering a record 62,538 cases in 24 hours, India's COVID-19 tally galloped past 20 lakh on Friday, while the death toll climbed to 41,585 with 886 people succumbing to the infection in 24 hours, the ministry's data updated at 8 am showed.