India to breach 2 million COVID-19 tests on Thursday: Union Health Minister

Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan has announced that the country is set to reach the mark of conducting 2 million COVID-19 tests per day on Thursday. The Health Ministry had set May 31 as the target date to breach 1 lakh tests per day mark but is set to reach the target way before the due date. As of Thursday, the number of Coronavirus cases in India has increased to 78,003, with the death toll rising to 2,549. In its daily update, the central government's data also informed that 26,235 patients had recovered from the virus.

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Speaking at the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr Harsh Vardhan informed that almost 90,000 tests were conducted on Wednesday and almost 2 million tests are expected to be conducted on Thursday. The Union Health Minister had visited NCDC to inaugurate COVID-19 realtime automated testing machine. 

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Speaking at the inauguration, Dr Harsh Vardhan stated that across the country ICMR and NCDC have developed over 500 labs for COVID-19 testing. He informed that the Cobas 6800 machine inaugurated can conduct almost 800 tests in a day and is fully automated. "I am dedicating this machine to the nation and many such have been ordered and shall be deployed across the country," he added. 

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'Blessing in disguise'

The novel Coronavirus pandemic will be remembered as a blessing in disguise for the world as hygiene norms to tackle will become the new normal for the society, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said on Monday. He was speaking as the chief guest at a digital conference on science and technology with industry body members organized by the Department of Science and Technology on the occasion of the 22nd National Technology Day.

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The Minister held that norms like wearing masks, social distancing, hand hygiene, and respiratory etiquette that are being told to practice to combat the COVID-19 pandemic will stay around after the crisis recedes.

(with inputs from ANI)