Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday asked five states, including Bengal, to further ramp up testing for the new coronavirus disease as part of nationwide efforts at early identification of cases and containment to break chains of transmission and reduce Covid-19 mortality.

Modi, in a videoconference with the chief ministers and representatives of 10 states that account for around 80 per cent of the country’s Covid-19 cases, also underlined a target to reduce mortality among Covid-19 patients to less than 1 per cent.

The current mortality rate among lab-confirmed Covid-19 patients is 1.99 per cent. Modi said the average fatality rate in India was among the lowest in the world and had been continuously reducing. Union health ministry figures show that the case fatality rate has dropped from 3.36 per cent on June 18 to 2.77 per cent on July 10 to 1.99 on August 11.

The 10 states — Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh — accounted for more than 513,000 (80 per cent) of the 639,929 Covid-19 patients under medical supervision on Tuesday.

Modi said if the virus was defeated in these 10 states, the entire country would emerge victorious in the battle against Covid-19.

The Prime Minister also said there was an urgent need for Bengal, Bihar, Gujarat, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh to ramp up their testing for early detection of cases, containment, contact tracing and surveillance. Modi emphasised the need to trace and test all those who had come in contact with an infected person within 72 hours.

“A view has emerged that if we defeat the coronavirus in 10 states, the nation will also win,” Modi said, according to tweets put out by his office.

“There is urgent need to increase testing in states where the rate is low and the positivity rate is high,” the Prime Minister said. “It has emerged from the discussion that there is an urgent need to ramp up testing in Bihar, Gujarat, UP, West Bengal and Telangana,” a release from the government said, quoting Modi.

The positivity rates — or the proportions of persons found positive among those tested — in these states is “on the higher side”, Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said while explaining their need for more testing.

Public health experts view high positivity rates as the result of either large epidemics or restricted testing in which only those with the most obvious symptoms are tested. Under restricted testing, patients with mild symptoms are likely being missed and could continue to spread the infection.

Health officials have said all states should perform at least 140 tests per day per million population, citing a threshold for comprehensive testing set by the World Health Organisation, and seek to achieve positivity rates of below 5 per cent.

Bhushan said on Tuesday that all states had fulfilled the testing target but some states were yet to achieve the positivity rate goal of below 5 per cent. Bengal, for instance, has a test positivity rate of 8 per cent, while Gujarat has a positivity rate of 8.8 per cent.

Modi also lauded the efforts of the states and talked about “Team India”.

“Everyone has shown a great degree of cooperation and the team work displayed by Team India has been remarkable,” he said, stressing that the target now was to bring down the fatality rate to 1 per cent and saying it was achievable.

Modi, according to the government release, referred to the success of Delhi in containing the virus and appreciated the role of Union home minister Amit Shah in preparing the roadmap for tackling the pandemic in the capital.

“The main pillars of this strategy were segregation of containment zones and focus on screening.… The results of these steps are there for all to see,” Modi told the 10 chief ministers, according to the release.