ICMR issues list of 176 government and 78 private labs for coronavirus COVID-19 tests

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Wednesday (April 15) issued a list of 176 government laboratories and 78 private laboratories which are approved to undertake coronavirus COVID-19 testing.

The list isused by ICMR includes 8 labs in Delhi including All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Lady Hardinge Medical College, National Centre for Disease Control, Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Institute of Liver & Biliary Sciences, Army Hospital Research & Referral, Maulana Azad Medical College, Vardhman Mahavir Medical College and Safdarjung Hospital.

The ICMR list includes 17 labs in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, 15 in Uttar Pradesh, 12 in Karnataka, 10 in Kerala, nine in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, eight in Rajasthan, seven in Andhra Pradesh, five in Assam and Bihar among others.

The private laboratories include nine in Delhi including Lal Path Labs, Rohini, Dr Dangs Lab, Safdarjung Development Area, AIndraprastha Apollo Hospitals, Sarita Vihar, Max Super Speciality Hospital, Saket, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Oncquest Labs, Prognosis Laboratories, City X-Ray & Scan Clinic and Lifeline Laboratory.

Haryana has six such labs all in Gurgaon including Strand Life Sciences, SRL Limited, Modern Diagnostic & Research Centre, ACore Diagnostics, MolQ Laboratory and Pathkind Diagnostics.

Maharashtra has 17 such laboratories, Telangana has 12 such labs, Tamil Nadu at 10, West Bengal at six, Uttar Pradesh has two, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh have only one each,.

Meanwhile, the ICMR said that a total of 2,74,599 samples were tested for coronavirus till 9 p.m. on Wednesday, adding that those samples were taken from 2,58,730 individuals.

According to ICMR, the number of samples are higher as many suspected patients are tested more than once. "At least 11,297 individuals have been confirmed positive among suspected cases and contacts of known positive cases in India," it said in a statement.

On Wednesday (April 15), till 9 p.m., 28,941 samples have been reported, out of which 953 were found positive for SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19.