RT-PCR test for COVID-19 crosses 40 lakh-mark

New Delhi: The number of test for detection of COVID-19 crossed the 40 lakh-mark on Wednesday morning, the Union Health Ministry said as the coronavirus cases shot up to over 2 lakh in the country.

A total of 41,03,233 samples have been tested as of 9 AM on June 3, with 1,37,158 tests being conducted in the last 24 hours since 9 AM on Tuesday, officials of the Indian Council of Medical Research said.

The testing capacity has been increased to 1.4 lakh per day through 480 government and 208 private laboratories (total 688 laboratories).

The capacity is being further raised to two lakh samples per day, sources said.

The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 5,815 and the number of cases climbed to 2,07,615 in the country, registering an increase of 217 deaths and a record single-day spike of 8,909 cases till Wednesday 8 AM, according to the Union Health Ministry.

The country registered over 8,000 new cases for the fourth day in a row.

Presently, there are 1,01,497 active cases of coronavirus and all are under active medical supervision, the ministry said.

"During the last 24 hours, a total of 4,776 COVID-19 patients have been cured.

Thus, so far, a total of 1,00,303 patients have recovered and the recovery rate is 48.31 per cent among COVID-19 patients.

"The fatality rate is 2.80 per cent," the ministry said.

With respect to the health infrastructure in the country for management of the disease, 952 dedicated COVID hospitals with 1,66,332 isolation beds, 21,393 ICU beds and 72,762 oxygen-supported beds are available as of now, it said.

Also, 2,391 dedicated COVID Health Centres with 1,34,945 isolation beds, 11,027 ICU beds and 46,875 oxygen-supported beds have been operationalised.

The Centre has also provided 125.28 lakh N95 masks and 101.54 lakh Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) to the states, UTs and Central institutions.