‘India’s Covid-19 testing ratio not low’: ICMR after Rahul criticism; nearly 13,000 cases as Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh cross 1k mark

NEW DELHI: As coronavirus cases in India touched nearly 13,000, the Centre on Thursday defended its testing strategy in the wake of fresh criticism, saying the testing ratio is not low, adding there has been no COVID-19 infections in 325 of the 736 districts.

The assertion by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) came in response to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi‘s criticism that India was not conducting enough coronavirus tests even as the Health Ministry said 28 districts which earlier reported COVID-19 cases had recorded no infections in the past 14 days.

With comprehensive testing holding key to controlling coronavirus, India also received the much-awaited five lakh rapid COVID-19 testing kits from China on Thursday, the government said.

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The death toll due to coronavirus in the country rose to 420 and the number of cases climbed to 12,759, registering an increase of 28 deaths and 826 cases since Wednesday evening, according to Union Health Ministry data. Out of this, as many as 1,514 people have recovered. The number of cases had risen by over 1,000 in the last two days.

According to a PTI tally based on reports from the states, the total number of cases was 12,935 while 1,571 patients had recovered. The death toll stood at 436.

Coronavirus cases crossed 1,000 in Madhya Pradesh(1,090) and Rajasthan(1,104) taking to five the states which have surpassed this mark.

Maharashtra topped the tally at 3,081 with Mumbai (2,043) being the worst hit followed by Delhi(1,578) and Tamil Nadu(1,267). The cases in the country’s commercial capital have doubled in six days.

“In countries like Japan, one out of 11.7 tests turns out to be positive, which is among the highest in the world. Italy tests 6.7 persons for one positive test while the USA tests 5.3 persons and the United Kingdom 3.4,” said Dr Raman R Gangakhedkar, Head of Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases at