Amid the rising number of novel coronavirus cases in the country, which has currently infected more than 13 lakh citizens and killed over 32,000, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch three 'high throughput' Covid-19 testing facilities on Monday via video conferencing in order to ramp up testing capacity in the country.
Apart from boosting the capacity, these testing facilities also help in strengthening early detection and treatment, thus assisting in controlling the spread of the pandemic.
These three high-throughput testing facilities have been set up at ICMR-National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research, Noida; ICMR-National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health, Mumbai; and ICMR-National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Kolkata, and will be able to test over 10,000 samples in a day, said an official release.
These labs will also reduce turn-around-time and exposure of lab personnel to infectious clinical materials. The labs are enabled to test diseases other than COVID as well, and post the pandemic, will be able to test for Hepatitis B and C, HIV, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Cytomegalovirus, Chlamydia, Neisseria, Dengue, etc.
Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare and Science & Technology, along with Chief Ministers of Maharashtra, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh will be participating in the event.
Meanwhile, India reported a spike of 48,661 covid-19 cases on Sunday, taking the total number of reported cases to13,85,522, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
The total count include 4,67,882 active cases,8,85,577 cured, discharged or migrated. With 705 deaths in the last 24 hours, the cumulative toll reached 32,063. Around 63.92% people have recovered so far.
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