280 govt labs conducting Covid-19 tests, reporting to ICMR

Sex steroids play protective role against Covid-19: Study

New Delhi: The Indian Council of Medical Research on Sunday said that a total of 280 operational government laboratories in the country are conducting tests for Covid-19 and reporting to it.

Out of the 280 labs, 233 are conducting Real Time-PCR, while 41 will do TrueNat tests, and the remaining six the CBNAAT tests. Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka have the highest number of government labs to test for the viral disease.

Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences, the Lady Hardinge Medical College, the National Centre for Disease Control, the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, the Army Hospital Research and Referral, the Maulana Azad Medical College, and the Vardhman Mahavir Medical College and Safdarjung Hospital are conducting them.

Besides this, ICMR also released a list of 90 private labs which will conduct the testing. Maharashtra, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana will have the maximum number of laboratories. In Delhi, 11 such labs will conduct the test.

Meanwhile, the total number of Covid-19 cases in the country mounted to 26,917 on Sunday evening, the Union Health Ministry said. Of the total cases, 20,177 are active cases, 5,913 people have recovered, and 826 people have succumbed to the disease.

Maharashtra remained the worst-hit state with a total number of cases rising to 7,628, followed by Gujarat which reported 3,071 cases and Delhi which has reported 2,625 cases, according to the Health Ministry data.