Odisha crosses 50,000 COVID-19 tests, set to increase capacity

Odisha has crossed 50,000coronavirus tests and the laboratories are being augmented to conduct up to 15,000 per day, officials said on Thursday.

The state has conducted 50,514 samples till Wednesday mid-night, National Health Mission (NHM) director Shalini Pandit said.

"Odisha has surpassed the national average of conducting COVID-19 tests of 983 persons per 10 lakh population by performing 1,155 tests per 10 lakh population," Pandit said.

The state presently conducts corona tests in eight laboratories and plans are afoot to set up 11 more, she said.

The state government has decided to increase the corona test capacity to 15,000 a day as a large number of people are set to return to Odisha from outside the state, officials said.

So far 39,765 people have returned to Odisha from other states.