Bhubaneswar: With the increase in COVID-19 cases everyday in Odisha, the capacity of testing in Odisha has subsequently increased from meagre 58 per week to around 15,000 per week, informed Health and Family Welfare Department (H& FW) today.
Through a graphical representation, the department informed that the state reported its first case of coronavirus on March 15 and the testing capacity has increased from 58 in first week to 14939 in sixth week till April 27.
The week-wise data says, 58 tests were conducted between March 16 and March while 285 conducted in second week i.e from March 23 till March 29. In third week (from March 30-April 5), 1518 tests were done and the number increased to 2846 in fourth week (April 6 till April 13).
Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had a discussion with district-level COVID-19 observers and asked them to focus on increasing the number of tests as several migrant labourers stranded in other states are set to reach the state shortly.
Currently, the COVID-19 testing is being done at Regional Medical Research Centre-ICMR Bhubaneswar, SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack, AIIMS Bhubaneswar, Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) in Bhubaneswar, MKCG Medical College and Hospital in Berhampur, Ispat General Hospital (IGH) in Rourkela and VIMSAR in Burla.
