Congress destroyed Karnataka, tainted Ballari’s image; BJP restored it: PM Modi

New Delhi, May 3: The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has crossed over one million RT-PCR tests for COVID-19 on Saturday evening marking a big landmark, ICMR officials said.

"We have tested about 10,40000 tests till Saturday evening. In a few days, we have increased our testing capacity. ICMR has been doing more than 70,000 tests in the last two consecutive days," he said.

On Saturday, ICMR released that a total of 976363 samples have been tested till date. From May 1 till evening on Saturday, 1,37,346 tests were done.

The top three states which are doing vigorous testing includes--Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan. As on date, these three states have conducted more than one lakh test respectively.

However, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Delhi still need to ramp up their testing capacity.

ICMR has always emphasised that the confirmatory test for diagnosis of COVID-19 infection is RT-PCR test of the throat and/or nasal swab, which detects virus at an early stage. Recently, Dr GS Toteja, Additional Director General of ICMR had said that to contain coronavirus infection, RT-PCR tests must be continued vigorously as the principal diagnostic tests.

RT-PCR tests are now available in 310 government laboratories and 111 private set up across the country.

On Friday, the Centre informed that ICMR has ordered 21.35 lakh diagnostic kits. As on date, India has reported about 37,776 confirmed coronavirus cases and 1223 deaths.

Shivamogga, Mar 8: In a tragic incident, three people died on the spot and one person severely injured after a car, in which they were travelling dashed against a wayside tree in Kaspadi village in Sagar Taluk on Sunday.

Police said that the deceased have been identified as Siddappa (40), Venkatesha (50), G Tippanna (60), while injured Nagaraj, was admitted to Hospital at Sagar.

The mishap took place when the victims were their way to visit Kargal Village from Raichur.

Udupi, May 12: The Coastal Bus Owner’s Association members have approached Deputy Commissioner to permit them to run bus service in the District.

Nearly 80 buses coming under the Coastal Bus Association and they are prepared to run the buses as per the guidelines set by the government. They have also requested RTO officials for permission to operate and are awaiting approval. If the bus service starts operating, many workers like drivers, conductors, cleaners, mechanics will get employment.

Coastal Bus Owners Association President Raghavendra Bhat said that the bus owners must provide services to the public as per regulations set by Deputy Commissioner.