<span style="color: #222222;">Indian Council of Medical Research, ICMR has said that a total of 17 lakh 59 thousand 579 samples of COVID-19 have been tested by the various government and private laboratories in the country. Yesterday, 85 thousand 891 tests were conducted.<br />''<br />''Meanwhile, ICMR is continuously scaling up its testing facilities for COVID-19 by giving approval to government and private laboratories. As of now, 348 government laboratories and 136 private laboratories' chains have been given approval to conduct the test for COVID-19.<br />''<br />''ICMR has initiated a multi-centre clinical PLACID trial and so far 35 institutions have been approved for the trial.</span><br />