New Delhi: While addressing a meeting a Tuesday, Union Minister for Health and Family Affairs Dr. Harsh Vardhan talked about the status of coronavirus cases in India and how the government has ramped up its testing capacity over time.

"Through 347 government and 137 private labs, we have tested more than 17.62 lakh samples. We have ramped up our testing capacity to 1 lakh tests per day now. Yesterday we tested 86,191 samples," - the health minister said.


Dr. Harsh Vardhan also emphasized on how India's average Covid-19 mortality rate is lower than the average global mortality rate as he said, "in the fight against Covid-19 our mortality rate is about the lowest in the world. Today the mortality rate is around 3.2%, in several states it is even less than this. The global fatality rate is around 7-7.5%".

The Union Minister was interacting with senior officials of various districts of Jammu and Kashmir via video-conferencing to assess the status of Coronavirus cases in the state.

"As we are seeing continuously, our recovery rate is getting better every day. Today our recovery rate is at 31.7%. Our doubling rate during the last three days is 12.2. During the past 7 days, it has been 10.8 days," Dr. Harsh Vardhan informed.


Meanwhile, the country is awaiting PM Narendra Modi's address to the nation at 8 pm as an update on the extension of nationwide coronavirus lockdown is expected. After the opening of liquor shops & resuming train operations for certain limited train routs, which other relaxations are provided to boost the economy, remains to be seen.

(With agency inputs)

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