ICMR chief directs states to analyse COVID-19 data to know epidemic

New Delhi [India], Aug 4 : The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has directed all state governments to "analyse the COVID-19 data to know the epidemic," said ICMR chief (Prof) Dr Balram Bhargava on Tuesday.
The top ICMR scientist said that since it has been more than 6 months when India reported the first COVID-19 case on January 30, country has been able to ramp up its testing speed.
So far the country has done more than 2 crores of testings and the government has been able to establish a large number of laboratories. And on August 3, ICMR performed about 6.6 lakh testing in a single day.
"States are also cooperating immensely with us. We are requesting them to reach 10 lakh testing per day and we are providing infrastructure to them. But it is important for states to analyze the data and mount locally specific data-driven responses or what we called as--"knowing the epidemic," (Prof) Dr Bhargava said.
"So the states have to know the epidemic at the states level and at the district level and mount responses which are data driven. And there is enough data now. We have set up systems so that every state, every laboratory and every district have data now which are testing that will in tackling the epidemic," he added.
As a policy of intelligent and calibrated testing, depending on which area needs more testing by setting up (RT-PCR, TrueNat, CBNAAT labs), depending upon high priority area whether it is Sikkim, Nagaland, Mizoram and Andaman Nicobar Island, said the top scientist.
"We have also established high throughput labs in special economic zones such that our economy also progresses and testing can happen more so where there are larger international airports," said (Prof) Dr Bhargava.