India sets a new landmark, exceeds 3 crore tests
While the cumulative testing rose from 1.2 crore on 14th July 2020 to 3.0 crore on 16th August 2020, the positivity rate has seen a rise from 7.5% to 8.81% in the same period. Although higher number of tests will push the positivity rate initially, but as the Delhi experience has amply shown, it will eventually lower when combined with other measures such as prompt isolation, tracking and timely clinical management.
Aggressive TESTING leads to early identification and isolation of #COVID19 positive cases. This coupled with efficient clinical treatment brings the Fatality Rate down. Thus, enhanced and timely TESTING is not only keeping the Positivity Rate low but also the Fatality Rate low.
A prominent determinant of the evolving testing strategy is the steadily widening diagnostic lab network in the country. This has significantly grown from one lab at Pune in early January 2020 to 1470 today, including 969 labs in the government sector and 501 private labs. These include:
• Real-Time RT PCR based testing labs: 754 (Govt: 450 + Private: 304)
• TrueNat based testing labs: 599 (Govt: 485 + Private: 114)
• CBNAAT based testing labs: 117 (Govt: 34 + Private: 83)