COVID-19 Pandemic: State-wise list of private labs approved by ICMR for testing coronavirus

A total of 157 laboratories are gearing up to conduct testing for COVID-19. This includes both government and private labs, the official website of the ICMR showed on Friday. Of the 157 labs, 121 are government laboratories approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research for conducting tests for the deadly novel coronavirus. However, only 109 are currently operational while 12 laboratories are in the process of being operationalised.

In addition to this there are 35 private labs across the country for conducting these tests. These are in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand.

"The National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune functions as the resource centre for the Viral Research and Diagnostic Laboratories (VRDL) network and is responsible for providing technical training for performing molecular and serological assays for virological diagnosis. NIV, Pune also performs the important task of standardizing assay procedures for the network as well as quality control and quality assurance activities," said the ICMR.

The World Health Organisation has stressed upon testing during the coronavirus outbreak across the world.

According to the ICMR norms, criteria for testing includes symptoms like fever, sore throat, runny nose, dyspnea etc or that individuals have returned from affected countries like China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Iran, Italy etc.