In a major development, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said that India surpassed one million tests for COVID-19 on Sunday, out of which 39,980 have tested positive.

While the pandemic has spread rapidly across the country, the ICMR has informed that the testing has been expanded for the virus and the research body is conducting more than 70,000 tests everyday.

India is among the few countries that have conducted 1 million tests for detecting COVID-19 and has maintained the lowest rank in the number of positive cases.

#COVID19: A comparative chart of countries after crossing 1 million tests and the total number of cases. pic.twitter.com/TF6KzN9i5s

— ANI (@ANI) May 3, 2020

‘We have tested about 1,040,000 tests till Saturday evening. In a few days, we have increased our testing capacity. ICMR has been doing more than 70,000 tests in the last two consecutive days,’ ICMR officials said.

The total number of COVID-19 cases in India touched the 40,000 mark, after 2,487 cases were reported in the last 24 hours, the health ministry on Sunday.

With this, the number of cases in India now stands at 42,533 including 1,373 deaths. Despite a spike in the tally of cases, Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan has said that the mortality rate in India due to COVID-19 is the lowest in the world.

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