PM Narendra Modi to launch High Throughput COVID-19 testing facilities - All details here

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch high throughput COVID-19 testing facilities today via video conferencing. These facilities will ramp up testing capacity in the country and help in strengthening early detection and treatment, thus assisting in controlling the spread of the pandemic.

These three high-throughput testing facilities have been set up strategically at ICMR-National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research, Noida; ICMR-National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health, Mumbai; and ICMR-National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Kolkata, and will be able to test over 10,000 samples in a day. These labs will also reduce turn-around-time and exposure of lab personnel to infectious clinical materials. The labs are enabled to test diseases other than COVID as well, and post the pandemic, will be able to test for Hepatitis B and C, HIV, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Cytomegalovirus, Chlamydia, Neisseria, Dengue, etc.

Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare and Science & Technology, along with Chief Ministers of Maharashtra, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh will be participating in the event.

Meanwhile, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has said that the focused efforts of Centre and State/UT governments are on early detection and isolation through aggressive testing and efficient clinical management of hospitalized cases have shown results with continuously falling Case Fatality Rate and improving Recovery Rate.

"With effective containment strategy, aggressive testing and standardized clinical management protocols based on holistic Standard of Care approach, the Case Fatality Rate has significantly dipped. The Case Fatality Rate is progressively falling and currently, it is 2.28%. India has one of the lowest fatality rates in the world," a statement by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said.

"Continuing the streak of more than 30,000 recoveries per day for the 4th successive day, 31,991 patients were discharged in the last 24 hours. This has taken the total recoveries beyond 9 lakh and the number currently stands at 9,17,567. The Recovery Rate is 64%," the statement by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare added.