The Delhi government on Wednesday reduced the maximum rates private labs can charge for RT-PCR tests for COVID-19. The rates have been reduced to ₹500, when a person gives the sample at a centre and to ₹700 for home collection of samples, compared to earlier rates of ₹800 and ₹1,200 respectively.
“All labs/hospitals will display the revised rates at a prominent place latest within 24 hours of this order. This order comes into effect immediately and is for strict compliance by all concerned,” read the order issued by Bhupinder S. Bhalla, Additional Chief Secretary (Health & Family Welfare).
The maximum rate the government pays to private labs, when samples collected by government centres are sent to private labs for testing, has also been reduced to ₹300 from ₹800.
“Delhi govt. drastically reduces corona test rates. This will help the common man [sic],” Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said in a tweet.
Chetan Kohli, Chief Operating Officer of Genestrings Diagnostics, said that the price cap may affect the labs’ ability to manage costs.
“Subsidised rates will ensure more people can afford RT-PCR tests but the price cap may affect the labs’ ability to manage costs that entails kits and consumables, as well as manpower, logistics etc. The older price was fair and affordable with a decent incentive for smaller labs to continue investing further in enhancing their capacity. Hence, in hindsight this price reduction may hurt the overall need to enhance capacity,” he said.
More vaccinations
The number of daily COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the city has increased for the second consecutive day, as per government data.
A total of 95,063 doses of vaccine were administered in the city on Tuesday, compared to 91,100 doses on Monday, as per a bulletin released by the Delhi government on Tuesday. But it is still less than the end of June when 1.5 to 2 lakh people were vaccinated daily on several days.
The vaccine stock of the city on Wednesday morning would last for four days and there were 3,50,930 doses of Covishield and 3,75,110 doses of Covaxin, as per the data. Till now, 1,02,95,389 doses of vaccines have been administered in the city, as per the bulletin.
67 new cases
The city reported 67 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the total cases to 14,36,518. There was no death reported and the total number of deaths stood at 25,058. A total of 72,965 tests were done in a day and the TPR was 0.09%. Of the total cases, 14,10,947 people have recovered and there are only 513 active cases.
