Coronavirus Maharashtra: COVID-19 testing in state doubled

Mumbai: The number of COVID-19 test laboratories in Maharashtra has improved to 103 and the count of tests per million in the state has now doubled, Health Minister of the state Rajesh Tope said.

According to an official statement, the Minister said that the number of government laboratories in the state now stands at 60, while the figure for private ones is 43. Among these, Mumbai has 27 (12 governments and 15 private ones) laboratories, while Pune has 22 (10 government and 12 private ones).

From May 26 to June 20, the number of laboratories has increased by 30, the minister added.

The number of COVID-19 testing laboratories in the state has reached 103, out of which 60 are government and 43 are private laboratories. From May 26 to June 20 newly 30 laboratories have started and the number of per million testing has doubled.

In the Maharashtra state, the first case of COVID-19 was reported on March 9. At the time only Pune and Mumbai had facilities of testing available. Later, the government increased the number of available facilities and now the number of laboratories has reached 103. The state has 5847 laboratory samples per million, compared to 4610 nationally.

Maximum COVID-19 tests in India are taking place in Maharashtra. From three months attempts were made by the government to increase the capacity of testing. The Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray inaugurated laboratories at Ratnagiri, Sindhudurga and GT Hospital in Mumbai. Till Sunday, around 7, 73,000 samples were sent out of which 1,32,075 samples were tested positive. This rate is 17 per cent.

NUMBER OF LABORATORIES                  

Mumbai- 27 (12-Government, 15-Private), Thane-07 (2-Government,5-Private), New Mumbai-03 (1-Government, 2-Private), Pune-22 (10-Government, 12-Private), Nagpur-11 (7-Government, 4-private), Kolhapur-3 (2-Government, 1-Private), Nashik-4 (2-Government, 2-Private), Satara-2 (1-Government, 1-Private), Nagar-2 1-Government, 1-Private), Palaghar (Dahanu)-1, Ratnagiri-1, Sindhudurga-1, Sangali (Miraj)-1, Solapur-2, Dhule-1, Jalgaon-1, Akola-1, Amaravati-2, Yavatmal-1, Gadchiroli-1, Chandrapur-1, Gondiya-1, Wardha-1, Aurangabad-1, Nanded-2, Beed-1, Latur-1, Parabhani-2