18 tests per million people: Low testing rate a worry in India

New Delhi, Mar 27: India has so far reported over 700 positive cases of coronavirus. India has performed 25,144 tests on 24,254 individuals as on March 25, 8 pm, the ICMR says.

Out of this 581 individuals had been confirmed positive. This means that the rate of testing in India is at nearly 18 tests per million population. Does this mean that the number of cases are lower because of limited testing.

Italy which recorded 74,386 cases has performed 3,24,445 tests as on March 25. This is 5,268 tests per million people. The UK on the other hand performed 97,019 tests so far at the rate of 1,469 tests per million people. There are 9,529 positive cases reported in the UK.

South Korea had performed 3,57,896 tests at the rate of 6,931 tests per million people. The World Health Organisation has lauded India's efforts to contain the spread of the virus.

However it said that a lockdown alone will not be sufficient. India needs to have aggressive measures to find, isolate and treat cases, WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.