COVID-19: India achieves a remarkable feat by performing more than six lakh coronavirus tests in a single day

In a remarkable feat, today India performed more than six lakh tests of coronavirus samples in a single day. The Indian Council of Medical Research said that a record six lakh 42 thousand 588 tests were conducted by various laboratories in the last 24 hours. More than one crore 88 lakh tests have been conducted in the country so far.

Starting from less than 100 tests per day, a multiple fold increase in a few months was made possible by dedicated teams of research institutions, medical colleges, testing laboratories, Ministries, airlines and postal services, reported AIR.

The Government has created robust health infrastructure for effective management of Covid-19 pandemic within a short span. The Central government in collaboration with the States and Union Territories’ government adopted the strategy of aggressive testing, tracking and treatment to deal with the coronavirus crisis. In January this year, there was only one testing laboratory for COVID-19 in India, the report added.

Now, 1331 government and private laboratory chains are conducting tests for coronavirus samples across the country. ICMR is continuously ramping up its testing capabilities by approving new laboratories, RT-PCR kits, True Nat Test, CBNAAT Test and rapid antigen test kits.

The Health Ministry and ICMR have asked the States and Union Territories to include additional testing methods to improve the availability of testing.