Nearly a third of Delhi's population has antibodies against Covid-19. Delhi’s Health Minister Satyendar Jain informed this today in a press briefing sharing the details of the sero survey conducted in the National Capital.

Mr. Jain informed that 29.1 per cent prevalence of COVID-19 antibodies have been found in the latest survey. He said, the highest prevalence was found in the southeast district. The State Health Minister asserted that as per Scientists, herd immunity is said to have developed in the community only when the antibody prevalence reaches at least up to 40 per cent of the population. He urged citizens to continue taking all necessary precautions in light of the ongoing pandemic.

The sero survey was conducted in the first week of August. The other two rounds of the survey are scheduled in the first weeks of September and October.

Meanwhile, the recovery rate of COVID-19 patients continues its upward streak and has reached around 74 per cent today. With sustained, pre-emptive and timely interventions by the government nearly 21 lakh people in the country have successfully recovered from COVID-19. India registered nearly 59000 recoveries in the last 24 hours and so far, a total of 20 lakh 96 thousand 664 people have recovered in the country.

The case fatality rate continues to show steady decline and now stands at 1.90 per cent. Nearly 30 States and Union Territories in the country have even lower fatality rates than the national average.

The Health Ministry said that around 69 thousand new cases of Covid-19 have been registered in the country in the last 24 hours taking the total number of cases to 28 lakh 36 thousand 926. Presently, the total number of active corona cases in the country is 6 lakh 86 thousand 395. In a single day, 977 deaths have also been reported taking the toll to 53866.

India is continuously stepping up it's COVID testing capacity. In the last 24 hours, the country moved closer to testing record one million samples in a day. With testing more than 9 lakh samples in a day, the nation achieved another milestone today. The positivity rate continues to decline despite increased testing and stands at around 7.5 per cent of the total samples tested.

The Union Health Ministry informed that the remarkable feat has been achieved by rigorously following the “Test, Track and Treat” strategy. It said, early identification through Testing, Surveillance and contact tracing along with focus on timely and appropriate clinical treatment of COVID-19 patients has ensured that only a small proportion of active cases require ventilator support.

The week-wise average daily tests witnessed a sharp increase from around 2.3 lakh in the first week of July 2020 to over 8 lakh in the current week.

With 9 lakh 18 thousand 470 tests yesterday, the cumulative COVID sample tests done so far in the country have further risen to reach 3 crore 26 lakhs 61 thousand 252 tests.

Government said that the strong determinant of this milestone has been a sustained expansion of testing labs across the country. From merely one lab in January this year, the country today has 1494 labs. Out of these 977 are government labs while the remaining 517 are private labs.