NEW DELHI: Nearly five crore COVID-19 tests have been conducted to date with 7.2 lakh of them carried out in the last 24 hours, the Health Ministry said on Monday.
In a statement, the ministry said following the country-wide ramping up of testing for coronavirus, 1,33,33,904 tests were conducted in the last two weeks alone.
"India is one of the few countries that have reported very high numbers of daily testing. The daily testing capacity has crossed 11.70 lakh. India's cumulative tests are nearly 5 crores (4,95,51,507) as on date. 7,20,362 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours," the statement said.
The ministry further said the Centre's policies are continuously evolving in the larger global context and on the heels of several measures to facilitate wider testing of people.
"Recently the government has issued the revised and updated advisory which provides for the first time 'testing on demand. The states/UTs have also been given wider flexibilities to simplify modalities to enable higher levels of testing," the ministry noted.
The daily testing average had been on a continuous upward incline from around 7 lakh tests being conducted per day in the third week of August to 10 lakh tests per day in the first week of September, the ministry said.
"Higher testing enables early identification of confirmed cases, which in turn leads to timely initiation of effective treatment in supervised home/facility isolation or in hospitals. These measures aid faster and higher numbers of recovery, lower fatality and saving of more lives," it added.
India's COVID-19 tally of cases went past 42 lakh on Monday with a record of 90,802 people being infected in a day, according to the Union health ministry data.
The total number of coronavirus cases mounted to 42,04,613, while the death toll climbed to 71,642 with 1,016 fatalities being reported in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed.