New Delhi: The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Tuesday reiterated that they have adequate kits for Covid19 testing.
"Yesterday we have received a huge consignment of testing kits. We have also ordered for additional 33 lakh RTPCR kits and 37 lakh antibody testing kits," said Dr Ratan R Gangakhedkar, head, epidemiology and communicable disease, ICMR.
It may be mentioned here that around 5 lakh antibody testing kits from China was supposed to reach India by April 8, but it has not yet come.
"We may receive the kits any time soon," said Dr Gangakhedkar.
The RT-PCR testing kits detects the Coronavirus's genetic materials (RNA) in throat swabs to diagnose a Covid19 infection, whereas rapid antibody tests indicate both current and older infections by highlighting the presence of antibodies in the blood. The result takes hardly 15-20 minutes.
India currently uses PCR test module which identifies whether a person is sick or not.
Gangakhedkar said that till date 2,31,902 Covid 19 testing have been done across India by 166 ICMR affiliated labs and 70 private labs.
Meanwhile, Lav Agarwal, joint secretary in the Health Ministry said that Centre is taking several steps for prevention, containment and management of Covid19 through collective efforts with the states and UTs.
"As of now, a total of 602 dedicated Covid19 hospitals with 1,06,719 isolation beds and 12,024 ICU beds have been developed," said Aggrawal.
He said that an increase of 1211 new cases and 31 deaths have been reported for Covid19 since Monday.
Aggrawal informed that AIIMS (Delhi) trauma centre has been made as dedicated Covid19 hospitals with 260 beds.
Meanwhile, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has issued directions to different central ministries, departments, State Government and state authorities on the continuation of nationwide lockdown and social distancing measures up to May 3.
These directives came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced the extension of lockdown for more 19 days (till May 3).
"...hereby issues directions to all central ministries, departments of Government of India, state and union territory governments and state and UTs authorities that the lockdown measures stipulated in consolidated guidelines of MHA for containment of Covid-19 epidemic in the country will continue to remain in force up to May 3," said Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla who is also the chairperson of National Executive Committee (NEC) of NDMA.
Meanwhile, the designated control room set up in the Home Ministry to handle Covid19 issues has so far addressed 5000 grievances with the help of other ministries and state governments.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, on the other hand, said that the decision to extend lockdown has been taken to protect the lives of the people.
"There are sufficient reserves of food, medicines and other daily essentials in the country, no need for any citizen to panic," said Shah.
Praising the lockdown extension decision by the government to stop the spread of Covid19, Shah said that the world is facing a global epidemic and the people of India under the leadership of Prime Minister have set an example for the world in fighting the disease.
"This is evident in all the timely decisions taken by the government and participation of the people in them. Proper coordination between the centre and the states are also very important to deal with this epidemic and to meet every need of the citizens," said Shah.
Shah has also praised the contribution of frontline health workers including doctors, nurses, sanitation workers, police and all the security personnel who were playing an important role in this fight against Covid19.
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