New Delhi, Apr 14 (IANS): Congress leaders Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi on Tuesday demanded the government scale up testing for coronavirus substantially, saying the country is testing only 149 persons per million.

"India delayed the purchase of testing kits & is now critically short of them," Rahul Gandhi tweeted.

"With just 149 tests per million Indians, we are now in the company of Laos (157), Niger (182) & Honduras (162)," said Rahul.

He said mass testing is the key to fighting the virus.

Party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi, too, criticized the government for the low rate of testing, alleging that the reports of two persons came only after they had died.

"I have written to the UP Chief Minister to expand the testing facility," Priyanka said.

The Congress has said that from February 1 till April 13, only 217,553 tests have been conducted, which means 3,021 tests per day and asked the government to enhance testing.

The total number of cases in India is 10,363, according to the data published by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Tuesday. Of these 8,988 are active cases of COVID-19, 1,035 individuals have recovered and discharged, one person migumrated to another country and 339 people succumbed to the disease.

Maharashtra remained the worst hit state with a total number of positive cases rising to 2,334, followed by Delhi which reported 1,510 cases and Tamil Nadu which has reported 1,173 cases, according to the Health Ministry data.

In Uttar Pradesh, Agra has become a new hotspot.