New Delhi: In a remarkable achievement, Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh has become the first state to conduct 75 lakh tests for Coronavirus.
UP Additional Chief Secretary Home Awanish K Awasthi briefed the mediapesons about scale of testing in the state and their intended target.
“Uttar Pradesh has become the first state to conduct over 75 lakhs COVID-19 tests. The Chief Minister has said that the number of COVID-19 testing has to be taken to 1 crore. Before September 30, UP will be the first state to test 10 million COVID-19 samples. Now, we are preparing to test 2 lakh COVID-19 samples per day,” Awasthi said during a press briefing on the coronavirus situation in the state.
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has been consistently pushing the authorities to increase the Coronavirus testing as well as area survey by dedicated Covid teams. It’s probably because of govt’s sharp focus that the state is conducting 1.5 lakh Covid tests per day and has set target of reaching 2 lakh shortly.
The state recorded 6,239 new cases in last 24 hours, thereby taking the total number of coronavirus cases to 3,12,036, show official figures. According to UP health department, 80 people succumbed to COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll to 4,429.
Recovery rate is also high in Uttar Pradesh. Out of total 37 lakh recoveries in the country, around 2.39 lakh account from the state.
In terms of Covid testing also, India has conducted over 5.5 crore tests till date, out of which UP alone has tested 75 lakh samples. This shows the state govt’s focused and determined approached in taking on the pandemic.
Price of RT-PCR tests capped @ Rs 1,600/-
Recently, the UP govt had reduced the charge for conducting COVID-19 test from ₹2,500 to ₹1,600/- by all privately owned labs. The price of COVID-19 confirmatory test through TrueNat was also fixed at ₹1,600.
This was the second cut in price of COVID-19 testing. When private labs were first allowed testing via RT-PCR, the fee for each test was ₹4,500 which was then slashed to ₹2,500 in April.
