ICMR said there are 72 labs for coronavirus tests, 49 more will be added.
Private laboratories are likely to be roped in to expand the testing facilities across the country, and talks are on to explore the possibilities, the Indian Council of Medical Research said today. The government, which has so far been averse to testing by private laboratories, said it was an "evolving situation" and while taking all precautions, it is also trying to be prepared for every eventuality.
"It is important that we should be ready to address cases," said Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary of Health. "The country has to prepare the capacity of staff. We have been increasing our capacity depending on the evolving situation. We are increasing the number of beds. Required logistics should be made available," he added.
The ICMR, which is the nodal agency for the drive against coronavirus, said India is currently in the stage 2 of transmission, where the virus infects people directly in contact with affected patients who returned from abroad. In the third stage, it transmits into the local population which has no travel history or have contact with anyone who travelled abroad and as such, the chain of transmission becomes impossible to trace.
It is at this stage - technically called community transmission -- that the number of infected people suddenly spikes and mass testing becomes crucial. The ICMR is preparing for this stage, where many more labs will be needed.
"We are expanding the number of laboratories. We have 72 functioning labs in the ICMR system and 49 more labs in DBT and DRDO system will be active by end of this week," said Balram Bhargava, Director General of the ICMR.
The ICMR also said that it is trying get the private labs provide free testing of samples, since "India has been a socialist set-up".
"It is an appeal to the private labs to do the testing at no cost," the ICMR chief said, adding that many have assured that they will provide the services for free.