A health worker collects swab sample from a lady's throat during a COVID-19 screening test in south Delhi area in New Delhi, India, July 20, 2020. (Xinhua/Partha Sarkar)

For the first time, a record number of 420,898 COVID-19 tests in a single day have been conducted in India, federal health ministry said Saturday.

According to top health research body, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 4,20,898 samples were tested for COVID-19 on Friday.

"A cumulative total of 15,849,068 samples have been tested up to 24 July 2020," the research body on Saturday said.

Health officials attribute the increase in testing capacity to the consistent adding up of more laboratories.

"This elevated number comes on the heels of 350,000 tests having been done very day consistently over the last one week. With 420,898 samples tested in the last 24 hours, the Tests Per Million (TPM) has further increased to 11,485 and cumulative testing to 15,849,068. Both continue to maintain the upward trend," the health ministry in a statement said.

In January this year, there was only one laboratory to carry out COVID-19 tests. However, the number of laboratories at present is 1,301 today, with 902 in the government sector and 399 in the private sector.

Medical staff check the final preparations for operation at a COVID-19 care centre at the Commonwealth Games village in New Delhi, India, on July 8, 2020. (Photo by Partha Sarkar/Xinhua)

The federal government has advised all states to keep up the strategy of "Test, Track and Treat".

"With effective and standardized clinical management protocols based on holistic standard of care approach, the Case Fatality Rate continues on its downward trend which means that the collective efforts of the centre and state governments have resulted in keeping a check on the mortality due to COVID-19. It has significantly dipped to 2.35 percent today," the ministry said.

"India has one of the lowest fatality rates in the world," it added.

The number of COVID-19 cases in the country reached 1,336,861 including 31,358 deaths, the ministry said earlier Saturday.

Meanwhile, the ministry said 849,432 people have been discharged from hospitals after showing improvement, which has pushed the recovery rate to 63.53 percent.

Globally India is the third worst-hit country due to COVID-19 pandemic.