India completes 50 crore COVID-19 tests, 5 crore tests done in the last 28 days

Indian Council of Medical Research [ICMR], which draws up COVID-19 testing protocols in India, has achieved the milestone of conducting 50 crore tests on August 18. With average daily testing of more than 17 lakhs in the month of August, India has tested 50 crore samples across the country till date.

The country has achieved the milestone of the last ten crore tests in only 55 days. On July 21, India had tested 45 crore COVID-19 samples. In less than a month, another 5 crore samples were tested. "This has been enabled by rapidly increasing testing infrastructure and capacity across the country," an ICMR statement, issued on Friday, said.

ICMR has been enhancing COVID-19 testing capability across the country by expanding and diversifying testing capacity by leveraging technology and facilitating innovation in affordable diagnostic kits. The testing strategy has been carefully calibrated to increase access and availability of testing.

“We have seen that exponential increase in testing led to early identification, prompt isolation and effective treatment of COVID-19 cases," said ICMR director general Dr Balram Bhargava. "This testing milestone is testimony to the fact that India has been successful in implementing strategy of 5T approach “Test, Track, Trace, Treat and use of Technology” efficiently, which will enable us to contain the spread of the pandemic," he added.

Even now, mass testing is on in areas in the country showing a high positivity rate. Several advancements have been made towards reducing turnaround time of tests. ICMR has been further enhancing COVID-19 testing capability across the country by leveraging technology and facilitating innovation in affordable diagnostic kits. Easy-at-home self-diagnostic kits, for instance, have been developed and approved to empower the citizen of India for COVID-19 testing.

Also, the ICMR made available specific testing platforms for specific conditions. General testing (RT-PCR), high-throughput testing (COBAS), testing at remotest places and PHCs (TrueNAT, CBNAAT), in containment areas (rapid antigen testing) and for large number of migrant population (pooled sample testing).

The total number of diagnostic laboratories in the country has swelled to 2876. Of this, dedicated government laboratories are 1322 and private laboratories are 1554.