<p>India added 1.38 lakh new cases of Covid-19 in the past three days even as it stepped up testing for the infectious disease sharply as a network of state-run and private laboratories tested more than 4.2 lakh samples in a single day.</p>.<p>The steep increase in new infections continued for the third consecutive day as India had added 40,303 new cases as on 8:30 PM on Saturday as against the 49,310 reported on Thursday and 48,916 on Friday, taking the cumulative figure for the three days to 1,38,529.</p>.<p>According to a DH Covid-19 Tracker, India had 13,77,170 confirmed cases of the infectious disease of which 8,77,845 had already been discharged from healthcare facilities after recovery.</p>.<p>The Health Ministry said it had tested 4,20,898 samples on Friday alone, the highest number of samples tested in a single day, and planned to increase the capacity to 10 lakh samples over the next few weeks.</p>.<p><a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/national/coronavirus-news-live-updates-karnataka-reports-5072-new-covid-19-positive-cases-and-72-deaths-864013.html" target="_blank">Follow live updates on the coronavirus here</a></p>.<p>“The Tests Per Million (TPM) has further increased to 11,485 and cumulative testing to 1,58,49,068,” the ministry said in a statement.</p>.<p>The Centre said it had advised all state governments and union territory administrations to test aggressively, an approach that may lead to higher number of daily positive cases initially, but would eventually decline as seen in the national capital.</p>.<p>With increased testing of samples and effective clinical management practices, the fatality rate has significantly dropped to 2.35% on Saturday and the recovery rate has surged to 63.54%.</p>.<p>India had begun testing for Covid-19 from a single laboratory at the National Institute of Virology, Pune and gradually increased it to 1,301 laboratories over the past six months. This also includes the private labs who have acquired test kits and have joined the fight against Covid-19.</p>.<p>Meanwhile, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has cancelled the rapid diagnostic kit import licenses of three firms and suspended that of 16 others after the USFDA removed them from their list of approved Covid-19 serology test kits.</p>.<p>The three firms are Cadila Healthcare, MDAAC International and N W Overseas while the 16 companies include Transasia Bio-Medicals, Cosmic Scientific, Inbios India, S D Biosensor, Accurex Biomedicals, Biohouse Solutions and Trivitron Healthcare among others.</p>
<p>India added 1.38 lakh new cases of Covid-19 in the past three days even as it stepped up testing for the infectious disease sharply as a network of state-run and private laboratories tested more than 4.2 lakh samples in a single day.</p>.<p>The steep increase in new infections continued for the third consecutive day as India had added 40,303 new cases as on 8:30 PM on Saturday as against the 49,310 reported on Thursday and 48,916 on Friday, taking the cumulative figure for the three days to 1,38,529.</p>.<p>According to a DH Covid-19 Tracker, India had 13,77,170 confirmed cases of the infectious disease of which 8,77,845 had already been discharged from healthcare facilities after recovery.</p>.<p>The Health Ministry said it had tested 4,20,898 samples on Friday alone, the highest number of samples tested in a single day, and planned to increase the capacity to 10 lakh samples over the next few weeks.</p>.<p><a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/national/coronavirus-news-live-updates-karnataka-reports-5072-new-covid-19-positive-cases-and-72-deaths-864013.html" target="_blank">Follow live updates on the coronavirus here</a></p>.<p>“The Tests Per Million (TPM) has further increased to 11,485 and cumulative testing to 1,58,49,068,” the ministry said in a statement.</p>.<p>The Centre said it had advised all state governments and union territory administrations to test aggressively, an approach that may lead to higher number of daily positive cases initially, but would eventually decline as seen in the national capital.</p>.<p>With increased testing of samples and effective clinical management practices, the fatality rate has significantly dropped to 2.35% on Saturday and the recovery rate has surged to 63.54%.</p>.<p>India had begun testing for Covid-19 from a single laboratory at the National Institute of Virology, Pune and gradually increased it to 1,301 laboratories over the past six months. This also includes the private labs who have acquired test kits and have joined the fight against Covid-19.</p>.<p>Meanwhile, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has cancelled the rapid diagnostic kit import licenses of three firms and suspended that of 16 others after the USFDA removed them from their list of approved Covid-19 serology test kits.</p>.<p>The three firms are Cadila Healthcare, MDAAC International and N W Overseas while the 16 companies include Transasia Bio-Medicals, Cosmic Scientific, Inbios India, S D Biosensor, Accurex Biomedicals, Biohouse Solutions and Trivitron Healthcare among others.</p>
