‘India’s Covid-19 positivity rate at 6.37 percent’: Ministry of Health

The national positivity rate of Covid-19 - the average rate of samples testing positive for the coronavirus disease across the country - stands at 6.73 percent, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare stated on Monday.

The ministry added that the central government had emphasized increasing testing, prompt contact tracing and timely clinical management of Covid-19 cases.

The ministry said that with the help of effort undertaken by the central government, a big jump in Covid-19 testing in Delhi has been achieved while the positivity rate has gone down.

The rate of positivity is an important marker in assessing the trend of an outbreak. According to Johns Hopkins University, the rate can provide insights into whether a community is conducting enough tests.

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“If a community’s positivity is high, it suggests that that community may largely be testing the sickest patients and possibly missing milder or asymptomatic cases,” it says.

A lower positivity rate, on the other hand, may indicate testing of patients with milder or no symptoms.

“The WHO has said that in countries that have conducted extensive testing for Covid-19, should remain at 5% or lower for at least 14 days,” it states.

India overtook Russia on Sunday as the third-worst affected country with Covid-19. India’s Covid-19 death toll stands at 196,93 while the tally now nears 7 lakh with a total of 697,413 cases. More than 60% of people have recovered from the deadly contagion across the country with 424,432 patients recovering or getting discharged from hospitals.