Enhancing India's Testing Capacity

On 18 May India reached a landmark in its fight against COVID-19 by performing 100,000 tests in one day. Starting from less than 100 tests per day just two months ago, a 1000 fold increase in just 60 days was made possible by dedicated teams from research institutions, medical colleges, testing laboratories, ministries, airlines and postal services working together. In January 2020, India had only one laboratory testing for COVID-19, at the Indian Council of Medical Research’s National Institute of Virology, Pune. Today there are 555 laboratories across the country, performing molecular tests for diagnosis of COVID-19 - an unparalleled achievement in the history of the Indian health system.