COVID-19 Tests: ICMR notifies 176 govt and 78 private labs

New Delhi: The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Wednesday issued a list of as many as 176 government laboratories and 78 private laboratories for COVID-19 testing across the country.

These include 8 in Delhi including All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Lady Hardinge Medical College, National Centre for Disease Control, Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Institute of Liver & Biliary Sciences, Army Hospital Research & Referral, Maulana Azad Medical College, Vardhman Mahavir Medical College & Safdarjung Hospital.

The break up includes 17 in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, 15 in Uttar Pradesh, 12 in Karnataka, 10 in Kerala, nine in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, eight in Rajasthan, seven in Andhra Pradesh, five in Assam and Bihar among others.

The private laboratories include nine in Delhi including Lal Path Labs, Rohini, Dr Dangs Lab, Safdarjung Development Area, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, Sarita Vihar, Max Super Speciality Hospital, Saket, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Oncquest Labs, Prognosis Laboratories, City X-Ray & Scan Clinic and Lifeline Laboratory.

Also Read: COVID-19 outbreak: Health Ministry identifies 170 districts in India as hotspots

Haryana has six such labs all in Gurgaon including Strand Life Sciences, SRL Limited, Modern Diagnostic & Research Centre, ACore Diagnostics, MolQ Laboratory and Pathkind Diagnostics.

Maharashtra has 17 such laboratories, Telangana has 12 such labs, Tamil Nadu at 10, West Bengal at six, Uttar Pradesh has two, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh have only one each.

On the other hand, ICMR today informed that a total of 2,74,599 samples were tested for Coronavirus detection as on Wednesday. Those samples were taken from 2,58,730 individuals.

The number of samples are higher as many suspected patients are tested more than once. This number has been released by ICMR, India's foremost medical research facility, by compiling data till 9 p.m. on April 15.

"At least 11,297 individuals have been confirmed positive among suspected cases and contacts of known positive cases in India," it said in a statement.

Meanwhile, on April 15, till 9 p.m., 28,941 samples have been reported, it added out of which 953 were found positive for SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19.

Read More: MHA Issues COVID-19 Lockdown 2.0 Guidelines With Selective Exemptions From April 20

India has ramped up testing off late and in the coming few days till April 20, when certain restrictions may be eased off conditionally in parts of India, ICMR hopes to increase the rate of testing.

On April 14, Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended the nationwide lockdown till May 3 in view of the seriousness of the situation. He claimed, in comparison between life and livelihood, life is more important which seems to have guided his decision.

(IANS)