India is set to locally produce 10 lakh kits per month each of RT-PCR testing and rapid antibody detection tests for COVID-19 from May, reducing dependence on imports amid soaring global demand caused by the pandemic. Efforts in areas of diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines are also being monitored on a war footing, the health ministry said.
According to the Times of India, the present ventilator manufacturing capacity in India is 6,000 a month. The centre along with states have also expedited work on dedicated COVID hospitals.
While India received five lakh rapid antibody testing kits from China on Thursday after a long delay, the kits were immediately distributed to districts based on high case burden, officials said.
The health ministry has also shared forecasting tools with states and district administrators for better planning of infrastructure across different COVID facilities based on the assessment of caseloads.
