'Rapid antigen testing begins in the national capital; test rates slashed': CM Kejriwal

Providing update over the situation of Coronavirus, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal stated that the Centre on Wednesday capped the price of RT-PCR test in Delhi at Rs. 2,400. Earlier, it used to cost ₹4,500. He added that in a bid to ramp up coronavirus testing facility in the capital, Delhi government is all set to start rapid antigen tests from Thursday.

ICMR on Tuesday wrote a letter to the Centre calling to ramp up testing for COVID-19 in Delhi containment zones and hospitals by use of rapid antigen detection test. 

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On Wednesday, the Ministry of Home Affairs had announced that the price of COVID-19 test in Delhi has been fixed at Rs 2,400 as suggested by a high-level committee set up by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday and now tests will be done via Rapid Antigen methodology.

The ministry's spokesperson had said that to improve contact mapping in Delhi's containment zones, health surveys have been started on Shah's directions, and out of a population of 2,30,466 people in 242 containment zones, survey of 1,77,692 people was conducted between June 15 and 16. The remaining will be covered by June 20.

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COVID-19 situation in Delhi

The deaths from COVID-19 in the city mounted to 1,837 on Tuesday while 1,859 fresh coronavirus cases took the tally in the national capital to over 44,000-mark, according to the health bulletin released by the Delhi government. The death toll from COVID-19 in Delhi stood at 1,400 on Monday.

Ninety-three fatalities have been recorded in the last 24 hours, the Delhi Health Department bulletin said. However, the bulletin also said the cumulative figure included all pending deaths reported to and audited by the Death Audit Committee.

From June 12-14, over 2,000 cases were reported per day in the city. The highest spike of 2,224 fresh cases was recorded on June 14. The bulletin said the death toll from coronavirus infection has climbed to 1,837, and the total number of cases mounted to 44,688.

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