New Delhi, April 16: India conducted 30,043 coronavirus tests on a single day on April 15, making it the highest in a day so far, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) announced on Thursday. Dr. Raman R Gangakhedkar of the ICMR said till date, India has conducted a total of 2,90,401 COVID-19 tests of which which 30,043 (26,331 tests done at ICMR's 176 labs & 3,712 tests at 78 private labs) on Wednesday. Gangakhedkar said that the rapid anti-body test is not conducted for early diagnosis, it is used for surveillance purpose.

In the wake of the rising coronavirus cases in the country, India has ramped up its testing process. On Thursday, the COVID-19 tally in India crossed the  12,000-mark with 941 new cases. The total number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in India mounted to 12,380 stated the data published by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Thursday. Of these, 10,477 are active cases of COVID-19 while  414 people succumbed to the disease.

Here's the tweet:

On April 16, the ICMR also issued a list of 176 government laboratories and 78 private laboratories for COVID-19 testing across the country. Maharashtra remained the worst hit state with a total number of positive cases rising to over 3,000, followed by New Delhi with 1,578 cases and Tamil Nadu, which has reported 1,242 cases and Rajasthan with 1,023 cases. according to the Health Ministry data.

Earlier this week, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that the SARS-CoV2 -- the new corovavirus that has infected over 18 lakh people and killed over 1.17 lakh globally -- is at least 10 times deadlier than the Swine Flu virus.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 16, 2020 04:57 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).