New Delhi, April 8: The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) scaled up its capacity to fight the COVID-19 pandemic in the country. On Wednesday, the ICMR gave a detailed account of coronavirus tests that were conducted in the last three days. According to a tweet by the Twitter handle @COVIDNewsByMIB, the ICMR data shows the number of daily COVID-19 samples that were tested on April 5, April 6 and April 7. On April 5, the ICMR data revealed that 9,369 samples were tested for COVID-19, on April 6, the total number of samples tested was 11,432 while that on April 7, the number was 12,584. During a press conference, the ICMR stated that total 1,21,271 tests for COVID-19 have been done so far. ICMR Study Shows One COVID-19 Patient Can Infect 406 Persons in 30 Days if Lockdown Order Flouted.

Till April 6, the ICMR had said that it had tested 96,264 samples. Of this, 3,718 were found positive for SARS-CoV-2. Earlier this month, the ICMR issued  guidelines to start rapid antibody-based blood testing for people with flu-like symptoms (cough, cold, low-grade fever and sore throat). The ICMR has validated and recommended 7 such test kits for use. These tests will be conducted in areas reporting clusters (containment zone) and in large migration gatherings/evacuees centres, as they are not suitable to diagnose live Covid-19 infections.

Here's the tweet:

The tests would be conducted in clusters and large migration centres. In India, the total number of coronavirus cases jumped to 5,194 on Wednesday. Out of which, 4,643 are active cases, 401 have been cured or discharged. The death toll in the country has increased to 149 so far.

In March, the ICMR had approved as many as 121 government laboratories to conduct tests for deadly novel coronavirus. In addition, there are 35 private labs across the country for conducting the tests. These are in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, and Jharkhand. With this, the total number of facilities for cornavirus testing has increased to 157, both private and government.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 08, 2020 02:51 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).