800 people to be tested for coronavirus COVID-19 monthly in every district: Health Ministry directs states

New Delhi: With the number of coronavirus cases increasing with a high rate in the country and several asymptomatic cases getting reported the Health Ministry has decided to escalate testing at the district level.

The Ministry on Monday stated that testing will be done at district level country and they are given a target of conducting 200 tests weekly and 800 per month to know about the spread of the virus in the country.

These tests will be done on those who do not have any coronavirus symptoms which will help in detecting the asymptomatic cases.

To fulfill the target of testing the Health Ministry has told states to select 6 government and 4 private hospitals in every district to remain dedicated to conducting testing.  

The Ministry has also categorized sample into two groups - high-risk group and low-risk group.

The high-risk group involves people like Health care workers and the testing plan aims to collect at least of 100 samples a week or 400 samples a month of people belonging to the high-risk groups. 

On the other hand, pregnant women and those without cold cough and cold will be categorized under the low-risk group. The Ministry has set up a target of collecting 400 samples of this category every month. 

With this plan of the Health Ministry, nearly 6 lakh people with no symptoms of the infection will be tested for coronavirus in a month.

RT-PCR test will be done for monitoring at the district level in which 25 samples tested at a time.

Meanwhile, the number of coronavirus cases in India stands at 67,152 which includes 44,029 active cases and 2,206 deaths.