NEW DELHI: Ramping up its testing capacity with each passing day, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) conducted over three lakh tests to diagnose COVID-19 in the last 24 hours for the first time.
According to an official, 1,24,12,664 samples have been tested for coronavirus till July 14, of these 3,20,161 samples were tested on Tuesday.
In a bid to increase the testing, the ICMR has approved a total of 1,223 COVID-19 testing labs in both public (865) and private sector (358) across the country. This includes RT-PCR labs (633); TrueNat Labs (491) and CBNAAT Labs (99).
"ICMR advises all concerned state governments, public and private institutions to take required steps to scale-up testing for COVID-19. Since testing, tracking and treatment is the only way to prevent the spread of infection and save lives, it is imperative that testing should be made widely available to all symptomatic individuals in every part of the country and contact tracing mechanisms for containment of infection are further strengthened," said latest advisory of ICMR on COVID-19 strategies.
The Uttar Pradesh government, meanwhile, has so far conducted 12,31,939 coronavirus tests, the National Health Mission (NHM) in Uttar Pradesh said on Wednesday.
"First six lakh tests in the state took almost four months (Total tests on June 24 were 6,03,390), Next 6.28 lakh tests have been conducted over the next 20 days only (12,31,939 today)," the NHM in UP tweeted.
As per data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, 39,724 COVID-19 cases have been recorded in the state, including 13,758 active cases and 24,983 recoveries.
Our testing capacity has been increased to three lakh per day through government and private laboratories, said the official.
Besides, ICMR has recommended all laboratories and hospitals, initiating testing through the rapid antigen test, to ensure that all symptomatic negative patients should essentially be referred to a real-time RT-PCR test for coronavirus.
Recently, ICMR wrote to all states and UTs saying all private laboratories in their areas who intend to initiate TrueNat/CBNAAT based testing for COVID-19 be encouraged to apply for NABL accreditation to ensure quality testing.
So far, five states -- Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka -- have ramped up their testing speed.
India saw a record single-day jump of 29,429 COVID-19 cases pushing its tally to 9,36,181 on Wednesday, while the death toll climbed to 24,309 with 582 new fatalities, according to the Union Health Ministry data.
This is the fourth consecutive day that COVID-19 cases have increased by more than 28,000.
The number of recoveries stands at 5,92,031, while there are 3,19,840 active cases of coronavirus infection presently in the country, the updated data at 8 am showed.
(With Agency inputs)