Lockdown 2.0 to have more aggressive testing

Sources from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare have stated that Lockdown-2.0 would focus on aggressive testing starting April 20. Thus, from testing 21,000 and 30,000 samples a day, the government plans to have 80,000 samples tested per day by the end of April.

The results of these tests will be the key for marking red hotspot zones, yellow potential hotspots and green zones. Therefore, the health ministry has again asked laggard states like Uttar Pradesh, West  Bengal, Odisha, Punjab, Haryana and Bihar to increase testing of samples.

“Once we know that there are no cases, a district administration can move to open up some activities to help the people earn livelihood,” a senior ministry official told reporters. ICMR head of epidemiology Dr Raman R Gangakhedkar had said, “So, we have capacity and we have enough kits to cover us for six weeks. With arrival of new testing kits today (Thursday), we are well covered for the next eight weeks.”

Meanwhile, at a Cabinet meeting it was stated citing the Health ministry data that India’s efforts at tackling Covid-19 are better than developed countries.