The Uttar Pradesh government is trying to get the approval of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for four institutes in the state to conduct novel coronavirus tests.

This was stated by UP Health Minister Jai Pratap Singh on Friday.

As of now, only King George’s Medical University in Lucknow has the approval for testing Covid-19 cases.

“We are working on a war footing to deal with the situation arising out of the coronavirus outbreak. We have a virology lab in Gorakhpur and facilities in Aligarh, Banaras Hindu University and Sanjay Gandhi Post-graduate Institute of Medical Sciences Lucknow. We are trying to procure equipment and get accreditation from ICMR for carrying out tests at these places,” the minister said.

“Samples from Gautam Buddha Nagar and some other places in western UP go to National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in Delhi for testing,” he said.

“We have many coronavirus cases in UP. The entire country is dealing with it at its level but on our part we started working from January 27 after alerts from the Centre,” Singh said.

“We have 19 points along India-Nepal border and screening began at all points with thermal analysers in January. We have screened over 18,000 people at our airports and are following Central government’s protocols as and when issued,” he added.

A Union Health Ministry data said that the number of novel coronavirus cases in the country rose to 173 on Thursday. This includes four deaths reported from Punjab, Delhi, Karnataka and Maharashtra. Uttar Pradesh has recorded 23 Covid-19 cases, including one foreign national.