AAP leader Sanjay Singh urges Centre to amend ICMR guidelines to increase COVID-19 testing

NEW DELHI: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh on Saturday wrote a letter to Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan asking him to amend the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines for conducting more coronavirus test.

"Need of the hour is to increase the number of testings. ICMR guideline for testing should be changed for that. I have written to Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan for the same, anyone who suspects they are infected should be allowed to go to pathology labs and get tested.," he said.

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"More and more pathology labs across the country should be given license and more and more testing kits should be made available to states. It should be known that who is infected and who is not. Otherwise, we would be sitting on a ball of fire, waiting for an explosion," he added.

The statement from the AAP leader came just hours India COVID-19 tally witnessed its highest-ever spike of 11,458 cases on Saturday, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).

A total of 386 deaths have been reported due to the infection during the last 24 hours. The total number of coronavirus cases in the country now stands at 3,08,993 including 1,45,779 active cases 1,54,330cured/discharged/migrated and 8,884 deaths.