Coronavirus Test
India crosses the milestone of conducting 400 million Covid tests
New Delhi/IBNS: India crossed the milestone of 400 million Covid-19 tests on Friday, with the last 50 million tests being done in the last 24 days, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
The number of daily tests done increased during April and May when the infection rate multiplied in the country while 1.8 million tests are being done every day in June though coronavirus infections are dipping across the states.
"This has been enabled by rapidly increasing testing infrastructure and capacity across the country. ICMR has been enhancing Covid-19 testing capability across the country by expanding and diversifying testing capacity by leveraging technology and facilitating innovation in affordable diagnostic kits,” the country’s apex health research body indicated.
In the midst of the huge second wave of Covid-19, ICMR allowed less accurate but fast and cheap rapid antigen tests. Earlier ICMR ensured at least 70 per cent of the tests were done using the more accurate RT-PCR or other molecular diagnostic technologies.
The laboratories conducting the Covid-19 test have also increased from 2,675, of which 1,676 are run by the Central or the state governments.
Efforts are being made to start high-throughput testing and testing in the most remote areas utilising the TB diagnostic machines like TrueNAT and CBNAAT.
Recently, ICMR has approved India's first self-use Rapid AntigenTest kits to reduce queues in laboratories, lower costs, reduce burden on manpower to collect samples from homes and issue results without delay.
“We have effectively responded to the evolving epidemic through focused and collaborative efforts of the Centre, state and union territory governments. Exponential increase in testing has led to early identification, prompt isolation & effective treatment of Covid-19 cases. These have eventually resulted in a sustained low fatality rate. This testing milestone is testimony to the fact that India has been successful in implementing strategy of 5T approach “Test, Track, Trace, Treat and use of Technology” efficiently, which will enable us to contain the spread of the pandemic,” said Dr Balaram Bhargava, director general, ICMR.
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