Covid-19: 11.7 lakh tests done in a day; total crosses 4.5 crore

NEW DELHI: There has been an exponential rise in daily testing with 11.72 lakh samples to detect Covid-19 tested on Wednesday, which helped the daily positivity to remain low at 7.2% even as 83,065 fresh cases — the highest in a day — were reported.
While the increasing number of cases has raised concerns about the government’s next phase of unlocking economic activities, the health ministry defended the Centre’s decision and said “lives are important, but so is livelihood”.
While more than 4.5 crore tests have been conducted and the cumulative positivity rate is at 8.4%, the ministry said testing did not present a uniform picture across states. Many states are showing sustained high testing numbers but the breakup of rapid antigen and RT-PCR tests vary from state to state.