India’s corona positivity rate at 6.73%, Punjab lowest  

As India on Monday inches towards 7 lakh cases, the Centre on Monday said the national positivity rate of COVID-19 infected patients is 6.73%, while Punjab with only 1.92 % positivity rate is lowest among eight states and Union Territories (UTs) showing improvement.

The positivity rate is based on the tests per million people.

A total of 6,859 people were found positive in tests of one million people across the country, reveals a Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) data.

The government called it a joint effort of the central as well as the state and UT governments to effectively manage the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

As part of the coordinated efforts, the ministry said the union government emphasised on increasing testing, prompt contact tracing and timely clinical management of the cases.

It has also helped the states to significantly ramp up testing capacities, it said.

"This has resulted in reduced positivity in the country. Currently the national positivity rate stands at 6.73 %."

The information was shared when a record over 24,248 new cases and 425 deaths were reported in the country in the last 24 hours, pushing the total tally to 6,97,413 with 19,693 deaths as it surpasses Russia to become the country with third-highest coronavirus cases.

As per the data collated till July 5, Puducherry, Chandigarh, Assam, Tripura, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Goa and Punjab with their positivity rates are lesser than the national average and tests per 10 lakh population is higher than the national average.

Among these eight states and UTs, Puducherry is on top with 5.55 % positivity rate followed by Chandigargh (4.36 %), Assam (2.84%), Tripura (2.27 %), Karnataka (2.64%), Rajasthan (2.51%), Goa (2.5%) and Punjab (1.92 %).

In Delhi, the government said, efforts being made by the UT were significantly bolstered by the central government to ensure an increase in testing.

Tests were ramped up through increased RT-PCR testing along with the new Rapid Antigen Point-of-Care (POC) tests which gives results in only about 30 minutes.

As a result of concerted and focused efforts by the Centre to augment efforts, the data said the average number of samples being tested per day has increased an average of 18,766 samples per day between July 1 to 5. The number of COVID-19 sample testing was only 5,481 between June 1 and 5.

In spite of significantly increased testing in Delhi, the positivity rate has seen a substantial decrease from about 30 per cent to 10 per cent in the last three weeks.

As per the data, maximum of 44,129 tests per million people have been done so far in Goa among these eight regions followed by Puducherry (12,592 tests), Tripura (10,941), Rajasthan (10,445), Punjab (10,225), Assam (9,987), Chandigarh (9,090) and Karnataka (9,803).