On 27th July 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually launched three high throughput COVID-19 testing facilities at Kolkata, Mumbai and Noida to increase the test capacity by 10000 tests per day in each city.
COVID-19 testing facilities:
The COVID-19 testing facilities are established in the national institutes of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR),
Noida: ICMR-National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research.
Kolkata: ICMR-National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases.
Mumbai: ICMR-National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health.
Benefits of the Testing Facilities:
i.Increased number of tests per day helps early detection and treatment which support the combat against coronavirus.
ii.These facilities will reduce the turn-around-time and will also reduce the exposure of lab personnels to the infected materials.
iii.These labs, currently limited for the testing of COVID-19, will be enabled to test Hepatitis B and C, HIV, Dengue and other diseases in future.
Initiative Taken in India to curb COVID-19:
i.PM Modi mentioned that India has around 11000 COVID facilities, more than 11 lakh isolation beds and more than 1300 COVID testing labs.
ii.More than 5 lakhs tests are conducted per day in India and processes to increase the test capacity to 10lakhs per day are being done.
iii.More than 1200 PPE kit manufacturing facilities were established in the past six months making India the second largest PPE kit manufacturer.
iv.To support the medical and health care professionals and to control the spread of COVID-19, the government has increased the human resources – paramedics, ASHA workers, Anganwadis etc.
About ICMR:
Director-General– Prof. Balram Bhargava.
Headquarters– New Delhi
Recent Related News:
i.Union Minister for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), Dr. Jitendra Singh launched India’s 1st indigenous wireless physiological parameters monitoring system “COVID BEEP” (Continuous Oxygenation & Vital Information Detection Biomed ECIL ESIC Pod) for the COVID-19 affected patients.
ii.In order to provide Covid testing access to rural inaccessible areas of India, the Minister for Science & Technology, Earth Sciences and Health & Family Welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan inaugurated and flagged off India’s first I-Lab (Infectious disease diagnostic lab) in New Delhi.
