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Business News/ News / India/  Covid-19: Over 1.1 lakh samples being tested every day at 612 labs, says ICMR
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Covid-19: Over 1.1 lakh samples being tested every day at 612 labs, says ICMR

From just one Covid-19 testing lab in Pune to 430 public labs and 182 private labs across the nation, India has significantly expanded its testing in the last 3 months, said ICMR
  • The country's Covid-19 fatality rate has reduced from 3.3% on 15 April to 2.87% which is among the lowest in the world, said health ministry during the press conference
  • Dr Balram Bhargava, Director General, ICMR (ANI)Premium
    Dr Balram Bhargava, Director General, ICMR (ANI)

    Amid the novel coronavirus outbreak in the country, which has led to more than 1. lakh Indians infected so far, the Indian Council of Medical Research today said that the over 1.1 lakh samples of Covid-19 testing are now being conducted every day at 612 laboratories.

    "Covid-19 testing scaled up significantly. Over 1.1 lakh samples tested per day at 612 labs," said Dr Balram Bhargava, Director General, ICMR.

    Speaking at the Union Health Ministry briefing today, Bhargava also said , "From just one Covid-19 testing lab in Pune to 430 public labs and 182 private labs across the nation, India has significantly expanded its testing in the last 3 months."

    In addition to that, ICMR said that it will continue with its study on the use of hydroxychloroquine for prevention from Covid-19 infection.

    “What we found from observational studies and from case-control studies is that it may be working, and we also found that there were no major side-effects except nausea, vomiting and some palpitations. That was from the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission," Bhargava said.

    The comments come after World Health Organisation on Monday suspended the clinical trials of hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19 treatment globally over safety concerns.

    WHO's decision came after a study published in The Lancet medical journal last week suggested the drug could increase the risk of death among COVID-19 patients, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual press conference.

    India is currently in the fourth phase of the lockdown which was imposed by the government on 25 March, 2020 in order to combat the spread of the highly contagious virus. The current phase is said to end on 31 May. Amid the current lockdown, several relaxations have been provided by the Centre, most significantly the resumption of train and flight operations for domestic passengers to ease travel across the country to their hometowns.

    During the press conference, Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said that since the imposition of the lockdown, "India's Covid-19 fatality rate has reduced from 3.3% on 15 April to 2.87% which is among the lowest in the world," he said. He also added that 4.4 deaths per lakh population have been reported for the world, while India has reported about 0.3 deaths per lakh population. "This has been due to lockdown, timely identification and management of Covid-19 cases" he said.

    Currently, as many as 60,490 patients have so far recovered from the highly contagious disease, taking the recovery rate to 41.61%, the health ministry added.

    Meanwhile, the novel coronavirus cases in India has surged past 1.4 lakh today after 6,500 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours. The total number of coroanvirus cases now stands at 145,380, according to the health ministry data.

    The death toll in the country also increased to 4,167 after 146 more fatalities were reported in the country since Monday.

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    Published: 26 May 2020, 05:52 PM IST
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