The industry body also guaranteed the government of its support in fighting the pandemic
In view of the surge in the number of active Covid-19 cases in the country, industry body FICCI has requested the central government to intensify testing for the virus across the state and begin the vaccination for the age group 18-45 years. The organisation also assured the government of the complete support of the industry in fighting the prevailing pandemic.
"We are currently testing about 11 lakh samples a day, while we had reached the level of testing 15 lakh samples a day in January. Further, there is the capacity of performing much more tests with 2,440 labs in the country operational for COVID testing, including more than 1,200 from the private sector", said Uday Shankar, FICCI President in a letter to the Union Health & Family Welfare Minister Harsh Vardhan.
The states may be advised to utilise the facilities in the private sector to the maximum to achieve the desired testing capacity, he added.
Shankar also urged the government to open up vaccination for the age group of 18-45 years, as this age group has been acting as the superspreaders of infection in the country.
"Given that there is no shortage of vaccines and there is a huge scope of augmenting inoculation capacity through greater involvement of private sector, we urge you to open up vaccination for this age group to help subside the spread of infection as well as the severity of cases in the country," he added.
Shankar also assured the government of complete support and cooperation of the industry in fighting this crisis.
(With PTI Inputs)