A doctor examining a woman at a COVID-19 screening centre.
The COVID-19 graph is rising sharply in India despite the lockdown in place across the country. As of today (June 17), India has recorded 3,54,065 confirmed cases and as many as 11,903 people have lost their lives to this condition, according to the latest update on the Union Health Ministry website. The World Health Organization (WHO) has been stressing the importance for countries to test, isolate and trace new cases to suppress the spread of the coronavirus infection.
To deal with the rapidly increasing number of coronavirus cases in the country, India has ramped up its testing capacity to test up to three lakh samples per day, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday. According to data released by the Ministry, so far 59,21,069 samples have been tested for the COVID-19 infection in the country. As many as 1,54,935 samples were tested in the last 24 hours, it said on Tuesday.
In a press release, the Ministry stated that a network of 907 labs has been created in the country, which includes 659 labs in the government sector and 248 in the private sector.
Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has issued an advisory on point-of-care Rapid Antigen Detection Test to make COVID-19 testing more affordable and increase the volume of testing without losing reliability, sensitivity and specificity.
According to the Ministry, the Rapid Antigen test may be used in containment zones and hospital settings under strict medical supervision.
As the Standard Q COVID-19 Ag detection kit takes just 15 minutes to show results, it will help in early detection of the disease. The ministry noted that the antigen test can be conducted at the site of sample collection in the healthcare setting within one hour of sample collection.
Currently, India's manufacturing capacity of antigen test kits is around 10 million in a month, the Ministry noted.
The Centre is trying to include all domestic manufacturers to the Government E-Marketplace (GEM) portal to help states easily procure the Rapid Antigen test kits, the Ministry said.
Considering the large number of cases in the national capital, the Centre has increased the testing capacity in Delhi. According to the Ministry, each of the 11 districts in Delhi will now have assigned labs for exclusively testing the samples from the respective districts.
Currently there are 42 labs in Delhi with per day testing capacity of approx. 17000, the Ministry said in its release.
It also recommended that the ELISA and CLIA antibody tests can be used for asymptomatic frontline workers, doctors, paramedics etc., and for those working in COVID-19 care to boost their confidence.
The Ministry in its release also noted that many states have already started engaging with the private healthcare providers to facilitate enhanced bed availability and critical care health facilities to ensure fair and transparent charges for services provided. This is in process in states like Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh.
