India on Wednesday registered the highest ever recoveries from Covid-19 in a single day even as the total infections surged past the 12-lakh mark.
According to the Health Ministry, 28,472 persons recovered from Covid-19 on Tuesday taking the total recoveries to 7,53,050 or 63.13% of the total number of persons infected by the Sars-Cov-2 virus.
The infectious disease has so far claimed 28,732 lives across the country so far, pegging the case fatality rate at 2.41%, a consistent decline from the 3.36% recorded on June 17.
A sero-survey conducted by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in Delhi revealed that Covid-19 infections were prevalent in 23% of the 1.9 crore population of the city.
“We are planning to undertake sero-surveys in many cities,” Sujeet Kumar Singh, Director, NCDC said here.
ICMR has stepped up testing for Covid-19. It had tested 3.43 lakh samples on Tuesday and plans to step it up to five lakh samples per day within the next one month.
The increase in testing has helped early detection and timely and effective clinical management of Covid-19 cases, the health ministry said.
The national average of tests per million population is 180, which is higher than the guidance given by the World Health Organisation.
According to Rajesh Bhushan, Union Health Secretary-designate, the test positivity rate for India was 8.07% and declining gradually.
Bhushan said there were 30 states and union territories that had test positivity rate lower than the national average.
Among large states, the states with test positivity rate lower than the national average are – Karnataka (7.29%), West Bengal (6.94%), Haryana (6.47%), Andhra Pradesh (4.16%), Uttar Pradesh (4.06%), Assam (4.03%), Madhya Pradesh (3.90%) and Rajasthan (2.46%).
According to the DH Covid-19 Tracker, India had 12,04,113 total confirmed cases of the infectious disease, while the death toll had touched 29,363 at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday.