New Delhi: In what comes as a relief amid the coronavirus scare, India still does not face 'community spread' of COVID-19 coronavirus, as result of 826 samples tested so far for community transmission of coronavirus have come out negative, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research.

826 samples tested, none of them are positive so far, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said.

On Wednesday, when 500 samples were tested and all of them had tested negative, Prof (Dr) Balram Bhargava of ICMR had said that "It is reassuring that at the moment there is no evidence of community outbreak from this study."

Explaining the process, Dr Nivedita Gupta, Scientist at ICMR said on Tuesday that "Till date, we have picked up 20 samples from 51 sites over a duration of 15 days, and between March 1 and 15 we have collected more than a thousand samples from the 51 sites from individuals who were admitted with severe acute respiratory distress or pneumonia-like symptoms, but they did not have any travel history or contact with any known patient of COVID-19."

Watch: 826 samples collected by ICMR tests negative



Gupta added that the samples will now be taken on a weekly basis because of the increase in the number of cases across the country.

In a bid to strengthen the COVID-19 testing capacity, the India Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is going to operationalise two rapid testing laboratories and 49 additional testing centres by the end of this week.

(with inputs from ANI)