New Delhi, July 21: The Union Health Ministry on Tuesday said that aggressive testing is necessary to bring down COVID-19 positivity rate. Currently, India has coronavirus positivity rate over 11 percent. Rajesh Bhushan, OSD, Health Ministry, during a pressing conference, said, “The aim is to maintain this level of testing so as to bring down positivity rate below 5 percent.” A week ago, the positivity rate was around 10 percent. COVID-19 Vaccine Update: Covaxin Human Trials Begins at Redkar Hospital in North Goa, Says CM Pramod Sawant.

According to the Ministry of Health and Family welfare, 30 States and Union Territories have positivity rate lower than the national average. During the press briefing, Bhushan stated, “19 States and Union Territories are performing more than 140 tests per day per million population.”

The number of COVID-19 deaths per million population in India is the lowest in the world. Meanwhile, the sero surveillance was done in Delhi to estimate the prevalence of COVID-19 infection among the general community of the national capital territory.

Health Ministry's Media Briefing:

In the sero-survey, it was found out that 22.86 percent have been infected with COVID-19, while 77 percent  population is susceptible. Dr. Sujeet Kumar Singh, Director, National Centre for Disease Control, said, “Eight out of 11 districts have sero-prevalence more than 20%. In central, northeast, north and Shahdara districts have sero-prevalence of about 27 percent.”

On Tuesday morning, India reported a spike of 37,148 cases and 587 deaths in the past 24 hours. The total number of coronavirus cases in the country has increased to 11,55,191, including 4,02,529 active cases. The COVID-19 death toll in the country also jumped to 28,084.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 21, 2020 04:50 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).