New Delhi: Amid Covid cases rising in the country and the government ramping up testing to an average of 120,000 tests daily, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Tuesday said that India is far from the peak due to timely management of the pandemic.

ICMR official Nivedita Gupta, addressing a press conference here, said: "We are very far away from the peak. Our preventive measures to curb the disease are very effective and we are better positioned in comparison with other countries. You will get to see the data in a week."

To a question about community transmission, she said: "It is important to understand the extent of spread of the disease and where do we stand in comparison with other countries, instead of using the word community transmission."

With the ICMR conducting a sero-survey to assess the extent of the spread of COVID-19, she said that almost 34,000 people are being tested as a part of it and the results are awaited. Gupta also rejected claims that the country is under-reporting deaths.

The government contends despite its huge population, India is well placed comparatively.

Joint Secretary, Health, Lav Agarwal said India has the seventh-highest number of cases but the population of countries also should be taken into account and it is wrong to only look at the total number of cases.

Agarwal claimed that 14 nations with population equal to India have reported 55.2 times more deaths.

"Our coronavirus fatality rate of 2.82 percent is the lowest in the world, compared to fatality rate of 6.13 percent globally, because we have been able to achieve this due to timely identification of cases and proper clinical management."

He also said high-risk patients should stay at home.

The government said at present, there are 476 government and 205 private labs testing for the virus.

The Covid 19 death toll on Tuesday rose to 5,598 in the country with 204 more deaths, while 8,171 new cases took the number of infections to over 1.98 lakh.