Number of COVID-19 tests cross 40 lakh-mark; cases surge to over 2 lakh: Health ministry

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New Delhi, Jun 3 () The number of tests for detection of COVID-19 crossed the 40 lakh-mark on Wednesday, the Union health ministry said as the coronavirus cases shot up to over 2 lakh in the country.

The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 5,815, with 217 news deaths reported, it said.

The total number of cases climbed to 2,07,614 in the country.

India is the seventh among the worst-hit nations by the COVID-19 pandemic after the US, Brazil, Russia, UK, Spain and Italy.

The country registered over 8,000 new cases for the fourth day in a row, according to the health ministry data.

A total of 41,03,233 samples have been tested till 9 am on Wednesday, with 1,37,158 tests being conducted in the last 24 hours since 9 am on Tuesday, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) officials said.

The testing capacity has been increased to 1.4 lakh per day through 480 government and 208 private laboratories. The capacity is being further raised to 2 lakh samples per day, sources said.

"The RT-PCR throat/nasal swab test is the best test for the diagnosis of COVID-19," the ICMR had said.

Meanwhile, most states have been working with the National Tuberculosis Elimination Program (NTEP) to deploy TrueNAT machines for COVID-19 testing. Through this machine, testing is done in such areas/districts where modern virological laboratories do not exist, it said.

Presently, there are 1,01,497 active cases of coronavirus in the country and all are under active medical supervision, the ministry said.

"During the last 24 hours, a total of 4,776 COVID-19 patients have been cured. Thus, so far, a total of 1,00,303 patients have recovered and the recovery rate is 48.31 per cent among COVID-19 patients.

"The fatality rate is 2.80 per cent," the ministry said.

With respect to the health infrastructure in the country for management of the disease, 952 dedicated COVID-19 hospitals with 1,66,332 isolation beds, 21,393 ICU beds and 72,762 oxygen-supported beds are available as of now, it said.

Also, 2,391 dedicated COVID-19 health centers with 1,34,945 isolation beds, 11,027 ICU beds and 46,875 oxygen-supported beds have been operationalised.

The Centre has also provided 125.28 lakh N95 masks and 101.54 lakh personal protective equipment (PPEs) to states, Union territories and central institutions.

The total 5,815 fatalities include 2,465 deaths from Maharashtra followed by Gujarat with 1,092 deaths, Delhi with 556, Madhya Pradesh with 364, West Bengal with 335, Uttar Pradesh with 222, Rajasthan with 203, Tamil Nadu with 197, Telangana with 92 and Andhra Pradesh with 64 deaths.

According to the ministry's website, more than 70 per cent of the deaths are due to comorbidities.

The total number of 2,07,615 cases in the country include 72,300 from Maharashtra followed by Tamil Nadu at 24,586, Delhi at 22,132, Gujarat at 17,617, Rajasthan at 9,373, Madhya Pradesh at 8,420, Uttar Pradesh at 8,361, West Bengal at 6,168, Bihar at 4,155 and Andhra Pradesh at 3,898 cases.

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