New Delhi, June 16: Director General of Indian Council of Medical Research Dr Balram Bhargava on Tuesday wrote to Union Health Ministry and sought to ramp up testing for COVID-19 in containment zones and hospitals in Delhi by use of rapid antigen detection test. Currently the State of Delhi has 40 RT-PCR testing labs in both public and private sector.

Stating the need to increase COVID-19 tests, Dr Bhargava said, "Testing remains a cornerstone in our fight against COVID-19 and therefore ramping up testing is essentially critical to track, trace and treat all cases of COVID-19. Since the gold standard RT-PCR test has essential requirements in terms of biosafety and biosecurity as well as specialized equipment, ICMR had been exploring alternate quick and reliable options for diagnosis of COVID-19." India’s Coronavirus Recovery Rate Improves to 52.47%, Tally of Patients Recovered From COVID-19 Rises to 1.8 Lakh. 

Apart from this, Dr Bhargava also said that the test kit should be stored between 2 degree Celsius to 30 degree Celsius. On the rate of Standard Q COVID-19 Ag kit, ICMR chief said that the upper cap has been negotiated by the committee is Rs 450. It also informed that Standard Q COVID-19 Ag kit is available with the local vendor of SD Biosensor.

Here's the letter by Dr Balram Bhargava:

Earlier, the Union Health Ministry said that in last 24 hours, 10,215 COVID-19 patients were cured. Adding more, it said a total of 1,80,012 patients, so far, have been cured of COVID-19. The recovery rate rises to 52.47 percent, which is indicative of the fact that more than half of positive cases have recovered from the disease.

Maharashtra continues to be the worst affected states in the coronavirus pandemic. The state has recorded a total of 1,10,744 cases so far, and 4,128 people have died in the state so far. Delhi has recorded a total of 42,829 coronavirus cases, and 1,400 people have died due to the virus. Meanwhile, India's COVID-19 cases reached 3.34 lakh, out of which 1,80,013 recovered and 9,900 died.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 16, 2020 04:39 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).