PM inaugurates three high-end COVID-19 testing labs in Noida, Mumbai and Kolkata

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, July 27, inaugurated virtually three high-end COVID-19 testing labs in Noida, Mumbai and Kolkata. 

Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, along with the chief ministers of Maharashtra, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh also took part in the event.

The coronavirus cases in India have crossed the 14.3 lakh mark. 

These new COVID-19 testing labs are believed to help bolster early detection and treatment of the virus thus, helping in rectifying its spread. 

The three can jointly test about 10,200 samples per day. Two of the labs are the first high throughput laboratories outside the National Capital Region (NCR), according to the source.

These testing laboratories have set up at National Institute of Research in Reproductive Health (NIRRH) in Mumbai, the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED) in Kolkata and the National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research (NICPR) in Noida.

In his address, PM Modi said that death due to COVID-19 in our country is much less than the big countries because the right decisions were taken at the right time in India.

"Be it an isolation centre, a Covid-19 special hospital, a network of testing, tracing and tracking, India expanded its capabilities at a very fast pace. Today, India has more than 11,000 Covid-19 facilities and more than 11 lakh isolations beds," PM said.

Currently, Noida has five ICMR-accredited corona testing labs. These include National Institute of Biology (NIB) at Sector-62, State Institute of Medical Sciences (JIMS) at Kasna, Child PGIA at Sector-30, Jaypee Hospital at Sector-128 and Sharda Hospital at Greater Noida and Lal Path Lab.

Newly inaugurated labs will also lower turn-around-time and exposure of lab personnel to infectious clinical materials. The labs are stimulated to test diseases other than Covid as well, and post the pandemic, will be able to test for Hepatitis B and C, HIV, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Cytomegalovirus, Chlamydia, Neisseria, Dengue, etc, the statement said.