The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the apex health research body of India, has equipped 72 of its laboratories to test for the pandemic disease. In addition to these labs, 49 more laboratories under organizations such as Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and Defence Research, Development Organisation (DRDO) would be equipped to test for COVID19 by the end of this week.

ICMR will also be setting up two testing locations (NCR and Bhubaneswar) for high throughput diagnostic systems for exponentially increasing rapid diagnosing of COVID-19. These systems can test up to 1,400 samples in a day.  

ICMR is having a dialogue with high quality private labs that includes labs accredited by National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) to understand the modalities of increasing access to the test in the endeavour to prepare for future.

ICMR has also revised the testing criteria for COVID-19 under which an individual should home quarantine themselves for 14 days if they qualify for the following conditions such as direct close physical contact of laboratory confirmed positive case.

If the person develops symptoms like fever, cough and difficulty in breathing they should immediately contact union health ministry helpline for testing. If the person is asymptomatic, they do not require a laboratory test.  

In addition to these conditions, if a healthcare worker managing respiratory distress/severe acute respiratory illness show symptoms of acute respiratory illness, they should get a laboratory test for COVID-19. If these cases are tested positive, then they should be isolated and treated as per the standard protocols.  

“Negative results for COVID-19 imply that India has not reached the stage stage 4 community transmissions. We at ICMR are regularly monitoring for community transmissions. Our labs are looking at random samples of patients who suffer from influenza like illnesses/severe acute illness,” said Dr Balram Bhargava, director general, ICMR.