By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, AUG 14, 2020 : CROSSING the 8 lakh/day milestone of tests in a single day, India has registered a record high of 8,30,391 tests conducted in the last 24 hours in India. In pursuance of the "Test, Track and Treat" strategy, India is geared up to reach the testing capacity of 10 lakh tests per day.

The strong resolve and determination of Union and State/UT Governments to follow aggressive testing as the first important step in the early detection and isolation of COVID-19 positive cases has resulted in India rapidly increasing the number of tests done per day. The week-wise average daily tests conducted saw a sharp increase from around 2.3 lakh in the first week of July 2020 to more than 6.3 lakh in the current week.

With a record high more than 8 lakh tests done in the last 24 hours, the cumulative testing as on date has jumped to 2,68,45,688 crore. The Tests Per Million has seen a sharp increase to 19453.

A strong determinant of this milestone has been the sustained expansion of testing labs across the country. From merely one lab in January 2020, the country is today enriched by 1433 labs with 947 in the government sector and 486 private labs. This is a testimony to the coordinated efforts of the Centre and the State/UT governments.

The different types of labs include:

- Real-Time RT PCR based testing labs: 733 (Govt: 434 + Private: 299)

- TrueNat based testing labs: 583 (Govt: 480 + Private: 103)

- CBNAAT based testing labs: 117 (Govt: 33 + Private: 84)