MHA directs ICMR to increase Delhi's COVID-19 testing facility from 27,000 to 37,200 per day

To ramp up Delhi's COVID-19 testing facilities, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has increased RT-PCR testing capacity from 27,000 tests per day to 37,200 RT-PCR tests per day, said the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Saturday.

"ICMR has increased RT-PCR testing capacity from 27,000 tests/day to 37,200 RT-PCR tests per day on directions of Home Minister Amit Shah. 30,735 RT-PCR samples collected in Delhi on 19 Nov as compared to 12,055 RT-PCR samples on 15 Nov," MHA tweeted.

The highest number of daily cases in India was reported from Delhi with 6,608 new cases registered in the last 24 hours, taking the tally of active cases to 40,936. As many as 5,17,238 cases have been reported so far, including 4,68,143 recoveries, and 8,159 deaths.

Meanwhile, India crossed a landmark milestone of conducting 13 crore tests for COVID-19 on Friday. As per the ICMR, 10,66,022 COVID-19 samples were tested yesterday. With this, a total of 13,06,57,808 samples have been tested for the coronavirus so far.

( With inputs from ANI )