Post 1 mn COVID-19 tests, India has least number of positive cases
NEW DELHI: In comparison with five other countries that conducted at least 10 lakh COVID-19 tests, India has the least number of positive cases while Spain had recorded the highest. While comparing the positive cases of six countries — India, USA, Germany, Spain, Turkey, Italy — when they crossed the million-mark of sample testing, it came to notice that cases in India is much lesser than all other countries. However,
a remarkable fact came to notice that testing criteria were different in every country.
As per the ICMR officials, initially, India tested passengers who had returned from foreign countries, their contacts and symptomatic health workers. Later on, the testing protocols were changed and all those with influenza-like illness symptoms, regardless of travel or contact history were included for testing in hotspots.
The total tests conducted by the ICMR stood at 10,46,450 on Sunday. It's the outcome of a proactive and graded approach of the ICMR that it ramped up RTPCR testing labs to 409 and daily testing has touched about 74,000 samples in May.
A comparison of the current daily testing figures around the world shows that it is about 1,50,000 in the USA, 1,20,000 in the UK (which just started mass testing), 50,000 in Germany and 15,000 in South Korea.
Meanwhile, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said on Sunday that India's COVID-19 the mortality rate of 3.2 per cent is the lowest in the world and over 10,000 coronavirus patients have been discharged from hospitals after recovering from the disease so far.