602 hospitals earmarked as dedicated COVID-19 facilities: Health Ministry

A total of 602 hospitals have been earmarked as dedicated COVID-19 facilities in coordination with states with a capacity of 1,06,719 isolation beds and 12,024 ICU beds reserved for such patients in the country, the Union Health Ministry said on Tuesday.

Addressing the daily briefing, Lav Agarwal, the joint secretary in the ministry of health, said 1,211 fresh coronavirus cases and 31 new deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours, taking the number of cases to 10,363 and deaths to 339 in the country.

According to an ICMR official, 2.31 lakh tests have been conducted so far for COVID-19. "We have tested 2.31 lakh samples, so far, including 21,635 samples yesterday. Out of these 18,644 were done in ICMR network of labs. We have enough kits to cover for a very long time," a senior ICMR official said.

The Health Ministry officials said that to break the virus chain in a particular area, not a single case should be reported from there for at least 28 days. "If no case is reported for 28 days from a particular area, we can say that we have been able to break the chain of transmission there," the ministry officials said.