Bengaluru: Minister for Health and Medical Education Dr. K. Sudhakar on Friday said that over 3 crore COVID-19 tests have been conducted in the State since the pandemic broke out last year.

‘’Karnataka has cumulatively conducted 3,01,49,275 COVID- 19 tests till Wednesday since March 8, 2020, when the pandemic broke out in the State,’’ Dr. Sudhakar said in a statement.

The cumulative tests include 51,27,867 Rapid Antigen Tests and 2,50,21,408 RT-PCR tests, besides other methods, during the last 15 months.

On the all-India COVID-19 tracker of the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry dashboard, Karnataka ranks second after Maharashatra on many indicators, including the total number of infections (26,53,446) and deaths (30,531) till Thursday. According to the data, the State ranked top in the number of active cases — 2,86,798 across the country as of Thursday. “Of the total tests carried out in the State, 82 percent are through RT-PCR method in 196 ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) approved labs across the State,” said Dr. Sudhakar.

In the first five months of 2021, 1,59,53,210 tests were conducted across the State, including 14,01,064 RAT and 1,45,52,146 RT-PCR. In 10 months from March to December 31, 2020, 1,41,96,065 tests were conducted, including 37,26,803 through RAT and 1,04,69,262 through RT-PCR, the Government said.

“With cases surging by the day, swab collection centres were ramped up to 2,642, including 2,176 of the Government and 466 of the private to track, test and treat,” he added.

Mobile swab collection centres comprising lab technologists and data entry operators were also set up to meet the sample target. “The total RT-PCR testing capacity of the labs is 1,78,950 per day, with 1,03,900 in State-run labs and 75,050 in private labs,” he added.