India in 24 hrs: 8,000 tests, 478 +ve cases
India’s total positive cases stood at 2,547 on Friday. Active cases are 2,322, 162 have recovered. Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu are the worst affected states with 335 and 309 positive coronavirus cases Spike not a national trend, out of total positive cases
A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that “testing, tracing and isolation must be the focus” now, the government on Friday said that around 8,000 tests have been conducted in the last 24 hours across the country, the highest in a single day.
With state governments racing against a continuously rising tally of confirmed cases to improve their healthcare infrastructure, in the last 24 hours 478 new cases got added, taking India’s total positive cases to 2,547. Of these, 2,322 cases are active, 162 persons have recovered, while 62 have died and one has migrated. Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu are the worst affected states with 335 and 309 positive cases, respectively.
Delhi recorded 91 new cases in 24 hours.
If the rising numbers are any indication then in the next 10 days or so the figure is expected to touch 10,000 in India.
However, officials maintain that the spike in cases is not a national trend and out of the total positive of novel coronavirus cases, 647 — spread across 14 states and recorded in the last two days — are linked to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation.
Health ministry officials added that out of the 12 deaths reported in the last couple of days, some are related to the Tablighi gathering.
While the Central government has initiated action against 960 foreigners who attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation and blacklisted them, experts continue to warn that India is not testing enough and the real number of positive cases is much higher than what is being reported.
As of April 1, India had only done 47,951 tests in total, and 66,000 in all till
Friday, including the 8,000 tests in the last 24 hours. In a country with over 133 crore people, this is not enough. The US conducts a whopping 100,989 tests on a daily basis, while Italy sits at the second spot with around 34,455 tests per day.
The main reason for the low test rate in India seems to be the unavailability of test kits, which are crucial for determining the presence of Covid19. Though 182 labs in the country have been identified for Covid-19 diagnosis, including 130 govt labs, test centres don’t have enough test kits.
Added to this is the strict testing protocol — to test only if a person exhibits all three symptoms of fever, dry cough and fatigue, and the focus on hotspots.