NEW DELHI: A total of 15 states and Union Territories have a cumulative COVID-19 positivity rate below the national average of 5.79 per cent with Bihar having the lowest positivity rate of 1.44 per cent, the Health Ministry said on Saturday.
Over 18 crore total COVID-19 tests have been conducted in the country till date with over 9 lakh tests in the past 24 hours alone, the Health ministry said in a statement around noon.
It said India's Tests per Million (TPM) stand at 1,30,618.3. "With the increase in testing infrastructure, the TPM has also increased exponentially.
" The Health ministry said 15 states and UTs have a positivity rate less than the national average with Bihar having the lowest positivity rate at 1.44 per cent.
The 15 states and UTs are Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Mizoram, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Daman and Diu, Assam, Punjab, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Odisha, Telangana, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya and Jammu and Kashmir.
The ministry said progressive countrywide expansion in testing infrastructure has played a crucial role in the steep rise of testing numbers.
"With 2,316 testing labs in the country including 1201 government laboratories and 1115 private laboratories, the daily testing capacity has got a substantial boost," it said.
"India has demonstrated an exponential increase in the number of COVID-19 cumulative tests.
It has crossed the landmark of 18 crore (18,02,53,315) total tests today. 9,16,951 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours," the Health ministry said.
It said high level of comprehensive testing on a sustained basis has also resulted in bringing down the national positivity rate.
"The cumulative rate continues to decline as total tests cross 18 crore. The national cumulative positivity rate is 5.79 per cent today. It has reduced from 8.93 per cent to 5.79 per cent in a span of five months," the ministry said.
The ministry said 22 States/UTs have better tests per million population than the national average.
"Thirteen States and UTs have lower tests per million population compared to the national figure, indicating the need for higher testing in these regions," it said.
The third massive countrywide mock drill conducted on Friday for checking the readiness of all preparations and simulating a seamless and glitch-free vaccine administration, covered 4,895 session sites across 615 districts in 33 States/UTs, the ministry said.
India's COVID-19 tally of cases climbed to 1,04,31,639 with 18,222 new infections reported in a day, while 1,00,56,651 people have recuperated so far pushing the national recovery rate to 96.41 per cent as on Saturday, according to Union Health Ministry data.