Centre prepares labs & hospitals for spike

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TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: 01.01.2022

Though so far Omicron has proved less severe than its predecessor Delta, the Centre is preparing for a spike in cases leading to increased demands for hospital care with a network of 3,117 laboratories being geared up to deal with testing .

There are 2014 RT-PCR labs, 941 TrueNat, 132 CBNAAT and 30 others. There are more than 200 manufacturers of RT-PCR test kits while 53 are making rapid antigen kits. A total of seven home-testing RATs should be available soon and daily testing capacity is in excess of 20 lakh, said official sources.

Official sources said that the health ministry was working closely with national scientific establishments and the states to ensure that facilties for detection, tracing and medical care are available keeping in mind the lessons learnt from the second wave.

States have been asked to ensure the Rs 23,000 crore allotted for upgrade of medical facilities are utilised to the extent possible and beds with oxygen support and those in ICUs are augmented as well as even spread up in urban and semi-urban areas. So far, the need for medical attention in rural areas has been on the lower side.

A total of 6,776 crore samples have been tested till December 30 and genome sequencing is being carried out using certain criteria, like all positive foreign arrivals.