5L to 6L in five days as Centre pushes testing

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 2

The sharp rise in disease burden comes parallel to enhanced testing strategy with the Centre yesterday categorically telling states that even private doctors should be allowed to prescribe Covid testing. Some states had restricted Covid test prescription to government doctors only.

The Centre today said all qualified doctors could recommend a Covid test.

After a slow start on the testing front, India’s Covid managers are now pushing test-track-treat strategy to uncover hidden disease burden and deal head-on with the virus. That explains the rising burden.

The first one lakh cases were reached in 109 days; one lakh to two lakh in 15 days, 2 lakh to 3 lakh in 10 days, 3 lakh to four lakh in eight days, 4 lakh to 5 lakh in six and 5 lakh to 6 lakh in five days.

Today’s total death toll is 17,834 with 434 fatalities in a day. The steady positive trend is rising recoveries, which now stand at 3,59,859, leaving 2,26,947 on disease management.

The difference between the recovered and infected rose further beyond 1.3 lakh cases today with the recovery rate improving to 59.52 per cent.

The government today said cumulative Covid tests would by tomorrow cross one crore mark as it reached 90,56,173 samples today.