By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, JULY 17, AS per the "Test, Trace, Treat" strategy, the Central Government is driving enhanced testing initiatives in State/UTs. As a result, there has been a steady rise in the number of testing labs across the country. The increased testing is in accordance with the ICMR Guidelines and has helped in early detection of cases. 

The testing includes the RT-PCR which is the golden standard of the COVID-19 testing. This has been augmented with Rapid Antigen Point of Care (POC) Testing that gives results within half-hour. This has resulted in ramped up testing in the Containment and Buffer Zones. This has significantly helped in controlling the spread of the infection.

All registered medical practitioners can now recommend testing. This coupled with the facilitation of widespread testing by States/UTs through the RT-PCR, TrueNat and CBNAAT lab network has contributed to a surge in the number of samples tested.

3,26,826 samples have been tested in the last 24 hours. The cumulative number of 1,27,39,490 samples tested translated to a figure of 9231.5 testing per million for India.

The testing lab network in the country is further strengthened with 1234 labs in the country; 874 labs in the government sector and 360 private labs. These include:

- Real-Time RT PCR based testing labs: 635 (Govt: 392 + Private: 243)

- TrueNat based testing labs: 499 (Govt: 447 + Private: 52)

- CBNAAT based testing labs: 100 (Govt: 35 + Private: 65)