Briefing media in New Delhi, Joint Secretary in Health and Family Welfare, Lav Agarwal said Railway is preparing more than three lakh isolation beds for which work has been started to modify 20 thousand coaches. He said, five thousand coaches are being modified which will provide 80 thousand isolation beds.

Joint Secretary Aggarwal said, government is regulating 24 class of medical devices which have been notified and regulated as drugs under Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 and Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945. He said, no manufacturer and importer can increase the MRP of a drug more than ten percent of MRP during preceding twelve month.

He said, this step has been taken to provide the medicines and devices at affordable rates to the people. Joint Secretary Aggarwal said, Supreme Court has directed the states to make arrangement of counselor at relief camps. He said, on the direction of apex court an email ID- technicalquery[dot]covid19[at]gov[dot]in has been created by the Health and Family Welfare Ministry to resolve the technical queries.

Joint Secretary in Ministry of Home Affairs, Punya Salila Srivastava said that efforts have been made by the States and Union Territories to provide essential items to the people. She said, 21 thousand 486 relief camps have been set up in the country wherein more than 6 lakh 75 thousand people have been provided shelter while meals to 25 lakh people.

She said, Cabinet Secretary held a discussion with the Chief Secretatries of States on Wednesday and reiterated that cargo movement should be hassle free and this must be effectively transmitted to the ground level. She said, Cabinet Secretary requested the states to expediate the implementation of Prime Minister Garib Kalyan Yojana.

Head Scientist, ICMR, Delhi, Raman R Gangakhedkar said, 47 thousand 951 tests have been conducted so far and the current capacity utilization of the labs is 38 per cent. He said, ICMR has given approval to 126 government laboratories and 51 private laboratories to conduct the tests. He said, total four thousand 562 tests have been conducted on Tuesday including 816 by the private laboratories.

Meanwhile, 386 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in the latest update taking total number of cases to 1,637 in the country. According to Health Ministry, death toll due to coronavirus has risen to 38 in the country while 133 patients have been cured and discharge.