Over 73.5lakh samples have been tested for COVID-19 till June 23, of which 2.15 lakh were examined on Tuesday, the highest in a day since the beginning of the pandemic, ICMR officials said on Wednesday. The apex health research body on Tuesday validated the 1,000th testing laboratory, ramping up the capacity for detection of COVID-19 in the country.
Currently, three lakh samples can be tested per day, an official said.
"A cumulative total of 73,52,911 samples have been tested up to June 23, with2,15,195 samples being tested on Tuesday," the ICMR said.
Of the 1,000 COVID-19 testing laboratories, 730 are in government setups while 270 are in the private sector. This includes RT-PCR labs (557), TrueNat Labs (363) and CBNAAT Labs (80).
"However, in spite of these developments, access to testing still remains a huge challenge in a large country like India. There is a definite need to increase the outreach of testing by introducing rapid point of care diagnostic tests," the ICMR noted in its advisory issued on Tuesday.
Also, there is value in conducting serosurvey with IgG-based antibody tests in certain situations, it said. In view of this, it is now suggested to include additional testing methods to improve access and availability of testing in various parts of the country, the health research body said.
The real-time RT-PCR is the gold standard test for detecting cases of COVID-19 and the average time taken is around 4-5 hours from receipt of sample to getting the result.
"The advantage of this platform lies in its accuracy of detection as well as ability to run up to 90 samples in a single run. In view of the requirement of a specialised laboratory setup, this test cannot be performed at every district-level lab which does not have molecular virology facilities," the ICMR said. -- PTI