August 18, 2020: The Union Ministry of Health on Tuesday said that as many as 8.97 lakh COVID-19 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours across the country.

"A new peak of 8.97 lakh COVID-19 tests were done in the last 24 hours. Even with such a high level of testing, the positivity has remained low i.e. 8.81 per cent compared to the weekly national average i.e. 8.84 per cent," it tweeted. "Aggressive TESTING leads to early identification and isolation of COVID-19 positive cases. This coupled with efficient clinical treatment brings the Fatality Rate down," the Ministry said in another tweet.

The Ministry also tweeted that "focused implementation of Centre-led strategies has ensured prompt identification, timely isolation and effective clinical treatment, leading to reduced Case Fatality Rate and added, " that 30 States/UTs performed better than the national average."