Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said, here on Thursday, the Covid-19 testing capacity would be enhanced to 10 lakh a day in 12 weeks. He said this while inaugurating the new Rajkumari Amrit Kaur (RAK) OPD block of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), here.
“The capacity will be enhanced to 10 lakh tests a day in the coming 12 weeks,” the Minister said.
“Gradually, we are moving in the direction to win the battle against the pandemic” which had infected 9,68,876 people across the country, he said.
He said less than 2 per cent of the Covid-19 patients were admitted in intensive care units (ICUs) and the lab network had been strengthened from 1 in January to 1,234 now. As on date, more than 3.26 samples were being tested per day, he added.
The measures taken as part of the graded, pre-emptive and proactive approach under the ‘Whole of Government’ strategy were showing results, he said.
Minister of State for Health Ashwini Kumar Choubey, AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria and several senior AIIMS officials were present on the occasion.
Vardhan expressed happiness that the new OPD was named after Raj Kumari Amrit Kaur, renowned freedom fighter and the first Health Minister of the country.
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He asked the AIIMS Director and others to expedite operationalisation of the mother and child block, elderly block and surgery block. He also urged officials and heads of departments for collective brainstorming sessions in each department to assess and analyse the innovative steps that could be taken to ensure the best quality healthcare to patients approaching AIIMS in New Delhi.
Urging them to propose patient-friendly reforms, Vardhan said, “There must be zero tolerance for poor, sub-standard quality of care and towards patients’ inconvenience.”
Spread across 6,300 sqm, the RAK OPD is the largest known OPD in India. SMART Lab, built at the cost of Rs 15 crore, connects various analyzers and technologies in a single integrated workflow. The pre-analytics, analytics and post-analytics are connected by a robotic track and are seamlessly integrated.
The tests capacity could be expanded to 200,000 and it can handle over 10,000 patients per day. Commissioned in less than one year, it’s one of the largest track-based laboratory automation setup across the Asia Pacific.
Over 32,000 cases
India recorded the highest single-day spike of 32,695 novel coronavirus (Covid-19) cases and 606 deaths in the last 24 hours, pushing the tally to 9,68,876 cases with a death total of 24,915 the Health Ministry’s data stated on Thursday.
According to Health Ministry data, as many as 6,12,814 patients have recovered, almost twice the number of active patients at 3,31,146. The rate of recovery has touched 63.24 per cent. India, however, remains the third worst-affected country after the US and Brazil.
During the last 24 hours, 3,26,826 samples were tested, as the testing lab network continues to expand. As on date, more than 1,206 labs have enabled people to undergo coronavirus tests.
Maharashtra remained the worst-hit state, with 2,75,640 cases and 10,928 casualties followed by Tamil Nadu with total 1,51,820 cases, including 2,167 deaths.
With 1,647 new coronavirus cases and 41 deaths in the last 24 hours, the national capital recorded a total tally of 1,16,993 cases and 3,487 deaths.
States with more than 10,000 cases included Gujarat (44,552), Uttar Pradesh (41,383), Rajasthan (26,437), Madhya Pradesh (19,643), West Bengal (34,427), Haryana (23,306), Karnataka (47,253), Andhra Pradesh (35,451), Telangana (39,342), Assam (18,666), and Bihar (20,612).
On the global front, the overall number of global Covid-19 cases has topped 13.5 million marks, while the deaths have increased to more than 5,83,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University.
