Over one crore Covid-19 tests performed in India

India has achieved a remarkable feat  by performing more than one crore COVID-19 tests since the outbreak of Corona pandemic in the country. Starting from less than 100 tests per day, a multiple-fold increase in a few months was made possible by dedicated teams of various stakeholders including research institutions, medical colleges, testing laboratories, Ministries, airlines and postal services. During the last 24 hours, more than 3 lakh 46 thousand COVID samples have been tested in the country.

To effectively deal with Coronavirus, the Government adopted the test-track-treat strategy for early detection and containment of the pandemic. Government promoted the indigenous manufacturers for developing equipment and materials required for COVID-19 testing to become



self-reliant. 

In January this year, India had only one testing laboratory for COVID-19 at National Institute of Virology, Pune. Today, more than 11 hundred government and private laboratories chains are testing Corona virus samples across the country. 

ICMR is continuously ramping up its facilities by approving new laboratories, RT-PCR kits, True Nat Test, CBNAAT Test for COVID-19 testing. ICMR has also recommended the use of rapid antigen test kits for diagnosis of COVID-19 in containment zones in combination with the RT-PCR test. India is also producing high-quality, low-cost testing swabs which resulted in the production of millions of swabs in record time and at a fraction of the cost of the imported ones.