Centre aims 6L rapid tests in Delhi

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 18

The Centre on Thursday announced to conduct six lakh rapid antigen tests at 169 new facilities being set up in the city where 50,000 kits have already been supplied.

Announcing the decision, which was taken at a review meeting here chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Minister of State (Home) G Kishan Reddy said: “The Centre has also decided to provide 500 additional ventilators and 650 ambulances to Covid-designated hospitals in Delhi.”

The Delhi Chief Minister and other senior officials of the Union Health Ministry and the NCT government were present at the meeting.

“The 169 testing centres will be operational in Delhi by Friday. We have targeted to conduct six lakh tests,” Reddy said.

Meanwhile, another record surge in new cases today took the country’s Covid tally to 3,66,946 with 12,237 deaths. There was an addition of 12,881 cases over the last 24 hours, the first breach of the 12,000 mark in a day. The total number of recoveries in the last 24 hours has been 7,390.

To further improve Covid detection, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan today launched the country’s first mobile infectious disease diagnostic lab called I Lab. It has been deployed for the last-mile connectivity and coverage of remote areas. The lab has been developed under the support of the Department of Biotechnology under the national Covid command strategy.