Raj govt sets target of 40,000 COVID tests daily

Jaipur, Jun 9 () The Rajasthan government has set a target of carrying out 40,000 COVID-19 tests daily as against the present capacity of 25,000 tests per day, Health Minister Raghu Sharma said on Tuesday.

The state health department had initially set a target of conducting 25,000 tests daily, which was achieved on Monday. Now the next target is to conduct 40,000 tests per day, he said.

To prevent the spread of coronavirus infection, the entire focus of the government is on testing, he said.

Sharma said so far 40 lakh tests have been done in the country, out of which 5,18,350 investigations have been done so far in Rajasthan.

"Our test capacity has increased from zero to 25,150. He said that after the arrival of Cobas-8800 machines in the coming days, our test capacity will be about 40,000," he said.

Cobas-8800 machines can reportedly test between 1,400 and 4,000 samples each day.

The Health Minister said the ICMR has given permission for setting up a testing facility in Sirohi district.

With this, investigation facilities are available in 16 districts of the state. He said that in the coming days, testing facilities will be made available in all the districts of the state. There are 33 districts in Rajasthan.

The minister said the recovery of 75 out of 100 infected COVID-19 patients in the state is a matter of relief for the department.

The proportion of patient recovery is much better in Rajasthan as compared to other states of the country, he added. AG DV DV