ICMR To Get 10 Lakh RT-PCR Testing Kits

136 government and 56 private laboratories can handle 18,000 tests a day, says Council

- Bindu Shajan Perappadan

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said on Monday that it was procuring 10 lakh reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) kits used for COVID-19 diagnosis. Seven depots have been established for uninterrupted supply of reagents across the nation for efficient distribution to government testing laboratories, it added.

Addressing the Union Health Ministry’s daily press briefing, the ICMR’s Head of Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases, R. Gangakhedkar, said the existing 136 government laboratories and 56 private laboratories had a testing capacity of 18,000 tests a day.

“If the labs start working in two shifts, testing capacity will go up to 25,000 but more important is to choose who you are testing,” Dr. Gangakhedkar said.

The ICMR has prepared a data portal for streamlining the data collection from all the laboratories on a realtime basis, he added.