Record-breaking number of COVID-19 tests conducted in 24 hours in India; tally crosses 27 lakh
After the country recorded a spike of 55,079 COVID-19 cases in India pushing the tally past 27 lakh on Tuesday, the government said that the country conducted a record number of tests on a single day -- yesterday.
In its fight against the virus, on August 17, 2020, nearly 9 lakh tests were conducted to identify COVID-19.
It was unclear which testing method was counted or if it included all the testing methods.
The ICMR updated on Twitter the number of samples that were tested for the coronavirus up till August 17 -- 3,09,41,264.
The Ministry added, "even with such a high level of testing, the positivity has remained low i.e. 8.81% compared to the weekly national average i.e. 8.84%."
Meanwhile, the COVID-19 caseload stood at 27,02,742, while the death toll climbed to 51,797 with 876 people succumbing to the disease in a span of 24 hours, the government data updated at 8 am showed.
Case fatality rate stands at 1.92 per cent.
There are 6,73,166 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country which is 24.91 per cent of the total caseload, while the number of recoveries has risen to 19,77,779.
Of the 876 fresh deaths reported, 228 are from Maharashtra, 120 from Tamil Nadu, 115 from Karnataka, 82 from Andhra Pradesh, 66 from Uttar Pradesh, 45 from West Bengal, 51 from Punjab, 23 from Madhya Pradesh, 18 from Delhi, 15 from Gujarat, 13 from Kerala, 12 from Haryana, 11 from Rajasthan and 10 from Odisha.
(With inputs from PTI)