COVID-19 tests breach 5 crore mark in Karnataka
The Hindu
Total tests stood at 5,00,31,061 on Saturday
The State reached another milestone during the pandemic with COVID-19 tests breaching the five crore mark on Saturday. Despite the decline in new cases since the last two months, the State has been conducting an average of one lakh tests daily. With 1,20,073 tests conducted in the last 24 hours, the total number of tests stood at 5,00,31,061 on Saturday.
With this, Karnataka is one of the two States that rank third in the country --- after Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra --- that have tested 8.2 crore and 6.2 crore samples, respectively. While Tamil Nadu has also done over five crore tests, Bihar and Kerala follow with 4.9 crore and 3.7 crore tests, respectively.
From an average 80 tests a day in March last year when the pandemic hit Karnataka, the State tested a total of over one crore samples till November 21, 2020. Subsequently, another one crore samples were tested in four months and on March 17, 2021 the total number of tests breached the two crore mark. By June 3, the total tests crossed three crore and four crore by August 10. Following this, it took 73 days for the State to add another crore tests.