The Delhi government on Wednesday directed all deputy commissioners to not send COVID-19 samples for testing to the National Institute of Biologicals (NIB) in Noida due to "considerable pendency", according to an official order on Wednesday.
The order, issued by Delhi Health Secretary Padmini Singla, stated that the samples shall be distributed among other government and private laboratories to ensure "that the results are received within one day of submission of the sample to the respective lab".
"The samples collected from different districts are being sent to various government and private labs majorly to the National Institute of Biologicals (NIB), Noida (Uttar Pradesh) in the last 15 days.
"And whereas, it has been observed that there is considerable pendency for the testing reports in the National Institute of Biologicals (NIB), which is hindering the effective containment of the disease," the order said.
Till Tuesday, the national capital had recorded 3,314 coronavirus cases.