New Delhi|HL
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has conducted more than 3 lakh eighty thousand tests so far in the country.
During a press briefing here, Dr Raman R Gangakhedkar, head scientist of ICMR, said: “We have done 3,86,791 tests so far. Yesterday 37,173 tests were done, out of which 29,287 tests were done in the labs of the ICMR network. 7,886 tests were conducted in private sector labs.”
Joint Health secretary Lav Agarwal who was also present at the press conference said, “A total of 15,712 confirmed cases are reported for COVID-19 in the country. As many as 2,231 persons i.e. is 14.19% of total cases have been cured or discharged after recovery.
A high-level Task Force has been formed to work on the frontiers of science related to drug testing and vaccines. Through the Task Force, the government will further facilitate, keep track and monitor the progress of national and international efforts in vaccine development.
The Department of Biotechnology is a nodal agency for vaccine development. The Task Force will focus on “clinical cohorts” which will focus on long-term follow-up of people for having better understanding of disease and management, Agarwal said.
