PM Modi to inaugurate virtually three high end COVID-19 testing labs in Noida, Mumbai and Kolkata today

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will today launch high throughput COVID-19 testing facilities through video conferencing. These facilities will ramp up testing capacity in the country and help in strengthening early detection and treatment, thus assisting in controlling the spread of the pandemic.

Our correspondent reports that these three testing facilities have been set up strategically at ICMR-National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research, Noida, ICMR-National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health, Mumbai and ICMR-National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Kolkata.

The government has adopted the test-track-treat strategy for early detection and containment of the Covid-19 pandemic. These three new testing facilities have been set up in Noida, Mumbai and Kolkata and they will be able to test over ten thousand samples a day. These labs will also reduce turn-around-time and exposure of lab personnel to infectious clinical materials. The labs are enabled to test diseases other than COVID as well. Post the pandemic, the labs will be able to test for Hepatitis B and C, HIV, TB and Dengue. With Dipendra Kumar, Suparna Saikia, New Delhi.

Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, along with Chief Ministers of Maharashtra, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh will participate in the event.