While the positivity rate of samples tested in last 24 hours is at an all-time high, the Union health ministry has started calculating cumulative positivity
On a day when the sample positivity rate for COVID 19 touched an all-time high of 13.4%, the government of India, in a statement claimed a reduction in positivity rate.
“As part of the coordinated efforts, the Union government has emphasized on increasing testing, prompt contact tracing and timely clinical management of the cases. It has also helped the States to significantly ramp up testing capacities. This has resulted in reduced positivity in the country. Currently the national Positivity Rate stands at 6.73%,” says the statement.
The statement conveniently calculates positivity as a percentage of the total number of cases in the country and the total tests done. The total number of tests so far in the country is 9969662 and the total cases is 697413. On the other hand, the total number of tests done in the country in the last 24 hours is 180596 and the total positives is 24248 which means 13.4% of all samples tested in the country in the last 24 hours, were positive.
The total number of tests done in the country in the last 24 hours is 180596 and the total positives is 24248 which means 13.4% of all samples tested in the country in the last 24 hours, were positive
As on 5th July 2020, the States with their Positivity Rate lesser than the national average and tests per million higher than the national average are:
| Serial No. | State | Positivity rate (in %) | Tests per million |
| 1 | India (National) | 6.73 | 6,859 |
| 2 | Puducherry | 5.55 | 12,592 |
| 3 | Chandigarh | 4.36 | 9,090 |
| 4 | Assam | 2.84 | 9,987 |
| 5 | Tripura | 2.72 | 10,941 |
| 6 | Karnataka | 2.64 | 9,803 |
| 7 | Rajasthan | 2.51 | 10,445 |
| 8 | Goa | 2.5 | 44,129 |
| 9 | Punjab | 1.92 | 10,257 |
The statement went on to talk about Delhi. “In Delhi, the efforts being made by the UT were significantly bolstered by the Central Government to ensure increase in testing. Tests were ramped up through increased RT-PCR testing along with the new Rapid Antigen Point-of-Care (POC) tests which gives results in only about 30 min As a result of concerted and focused efforts by Government of India to augment efforts, the average number of samples being tested per day which was only 5481 (1st-5th June 2020) has witnessed a huge increase to reach an average of 18,766 samples per day between 1st to 5th July 2020. In spite of significantly increased testing in Delhi, the positivity rate has seen a substantial decrease from about 30% to 10% in the last three weeks,” it said.
