India starts low-cost testing amid highest daily cases

India Wednesday reported a new record-high in daily COVID-19 cases as the country is yet to see its peak despite more than 935,000 positive cases.

The Health Ministry said in its daily morning bulletin that a total of 29,429 positive cases were reported across the nation in the past 24 hours, with 582 more people succumbed to the virus.

These are the highest daily figures yet.

Meanwhile, the Indian Institute of Technology in the capital New Delhi on Wednesday launched its low-cost testing kit commercially. The new kit -- dubbed COROSURE -- will be available for 500 Indian rupees ($6.6), compared to the existing testing kits with a charge of around $60.

“This technology should change the paradigm of Covid testing in the country, both in terms of scale and cost … Two million tests [per month] at an unbeatable price,” V Ramgopal Rao, director of the institute, said in a tweet prior to an online launching event.

He hoped the new testing kit would help India to fight the virus as the nation with nearly 1.3 billion population reported a total of 936,181 confirmed cases of coronavirus, with 24,309 deaths. The total number of cases in the country includes 319,840 active cases and 592,032 cured/discharged/migrated.

The Health Ministry on Tuesday confirmed that 86% of the total cases are from ten states. Of these, 50% are from the western state of Maharashtra (267,665 cases, 10,695 deaths) and the southern state of Tamil Nadu (147,324 cases, 2,099 deaths).

India lifted nationwide lockdown in early June despite steady upward trend in coronavirus cases and deaths and moved to locality-based lockdowns in badly-hit areas.