Coronavirus in India updates: With 826 new cases, 24 deaths in last 24 hours, India's tally rises to 12,759

As the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis exacerbates in India, the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus climbed to 12,759 with the death toll reaching 420.

Till 5 PM in the evening, 826 cases and 24 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours.

The Health Ministry has informed that 325 districts in India have no cases of COVID19. It also said that an action plan has been prepared to strengthen ongoing surveillance for COVID-19 clusters.

"An action plan has been prepared on strengthening our ongoing surveillance utilizing the services of World Health Organisation’s national polio surveillance network Lav Agrawal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health stated.

The Indian Council of Medical Research informed that 2,90,401 people have been tested till date, out of which 30,043 (26,331 tests done at ICMR's 176 labs & 3,712 tests at 78 private labs) were tested yesterday.

The organisation also informed that the rapid antibody test is not conducted for early diagnosis, it is used for surveillance purposes.

"In Japan, to find one positive case, 11.7 persons are tested. In Italy that number is 6.7, in the US it's 5.3, in the UK it's 3.4. Here in India, we do 24 tests for one positive case,"  R Gangakhedkar, Head of Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) stated.