Assam Health Minister HimantaBiswa Sarma Saturday urged private hospitals to set up facilities for COVID-19 testing to meet the rising need due to the arrival of stranded people from outside the state.The need for testing will increase manifold after people start coming to the state from outside, the minister said at a press conference.Assam has six COVID-19 testing laboratories and the state government was trying to set up a seventh at the Diphu Medical College and Hospital."We need more testing laboratories and have asked the private hospitals to set up the facilities in their labs," he said.The state government is also prepared to go for Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in this regard, he said.Sarma said the danger of COVID-19 was still looming large and the state has to be prepared to deal with it.Assam so far has tested 11,623 samples and out these, reports of 42 came in as positive. Test reports of 1,082 samples are awaited.Out of the 42 positive cases, nine are undergoing treatment, one died and 32 have recovered.
