Mobile COVID19 testing laboratory to take tests to remote corners

In a presentation the health ministry has said that India brought down COVOD19 growth rate by a huge margin by the lockdown

India on Thursday got its first mobile I-Lab (Infectious disease diagnostic lab) for COVID-19 testing for last mile testing access. It will be deployed in remote, interior and inaccessible parts of the country and have capability to perform 25 COVID-19 RT-PCR tests/Day, 300 ELISA tests/day, additional tests for TB, HIV etc. as per CGHS rates.

Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare Dr. Harsh Vardhan launched the I-LAB. It is supported by the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology, under the Covid Command strategy. In the last 24 hours there were 334 deaths and 12,880 cases reported, taking the total to 3,66,945. During that time, 7390 COVID-19 patients were cured. A total of 1,94,324 patients, so far, have been cured of COVID-19. The recovery rate rises to 52.96%. Currently, 1,60,384 active cases are under medical supervision. 

At the beginning of Lockdown 1.0 on March 25, the growth rate stood at 24.3%, on April 14, it came down to 13%, which was more than halved to 6.1% by the end of Lockdown 2.0 on May 3

The number of government labs has been increased to 699 and private labs has been increased to 254 (A total of 953). The break-up is given as:

Real-Time RT PCR based testing labs: 540 (Govt: 349 + Private: 191)​

TrueNat based testing labs: 340 (Govt: 325 + Private: 15)​

CBNAAT based testing labs: 73 (Govt: 25 + Private: 48)​

In the last 24 hours, 1,65,412 samples were tested. The total number of samples tested thus far is 62,49,668.

In a two meetings with chief ministers over the last two days, the prime minister had told them to concentrate on increasing testing and contact tracing. The health ministry in a presentation said that India managed to bring down the growth rate of COVID cases from 24.3% pre-lockdown to 3.8% during the current Unlock 1.0. At the beginning of Lockdown 1.0 on March 25, the growth rate stood at 24.3%, on April 14, it came down to 13%, which was more than halved to 6.1% by the end of Lockdown 2.0 on May 3. It came down to 5.3% at the end of Lockdown 3.0 on May 17. At the end of Lockdown 4.0 on May 31 it stood at 4.7%.