PM Modi to Inaugurate 3 New High-throughput ICMR Labs in Noida, Mumbai & Kolkata on July 27

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate three new high-throughput labs of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) at Noida, Kolkata and Mumbai through video-conference on July 27, with the chief ministers of these states also attending the event.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and their Maharashtra counterpart Uddhav Thackeray are expected to take part in the virtual event, news agency ANI reported.

The ICMR, one of the oldest medical research bodies across the globe, helps in coordinating and promoting biomedical research in India and, at present, is helping carry out Covid-19 tests on a daily basis.

As the coronavirus pandemic worsens across the world, India has registered nearly 13 lakh cases and the death toll has crossed 30,000. However, according to Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, India has one of the world's lowest COVID-19 infection and death rates. On Friday, underlining that the recovery rate among coronavirus-infected patients in the country is 63.45 per cent while the mortality rate is 2.3 per cent, Vardhan said, "At 864 cases per million and less than 21 deaths per million of our population, India has one of the world's lowest infection and death rates."

Vardhan also emphasised how the Indian traditional system of medicine has also contributed substantially in boosting the immunity of the general population during COVID-19, according to a health ministry statement.

"There is currently no institutional mechanism within the SCO to discuss cooperation in traditional medicine that has the potential to fulfil the WHO Traditional Medicine Strategy 2014-2023 and also reinforce the effective implementation of the joint statement on cooperation in combating epidemics signed at the Qingdao Summit in 2018," the statement quoted the Union health minister as saying.

"This is in spite of such complementary medicine systems being widely practised in all member states of our SCO," he said and proposed the setting up of a new sub-group on traditional medicine under the existing institutional meetings of the SCO for health ministers.