New Delhi, The Union Health Ministry on Tuesday reported another 1,211 confirmed cases and 31 deaths in the last 24 hours. The ministry also said that India has 602 dedicated COVID-19 hospitals having 1,06,719 isolation beds and over 12,000 ICU beds are ready.

It said advanced screening procedures, prior to January 30, have played a major role in managing the deadly infection in the country.

Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry, said the total number of confirmed cases in India is now at 10,363, while 1,035 have been cured and 339 succumbed to the disease. Currently, there are 8,988 active cases in the country. "We are also expanding our testing through rapid diagnostic kits", added Agarwal.

An Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) official said that 2.31 lakh samples have been tested for coronavirus and 21,635 samples were tested in the past 24 hours. "We have received testing kits and have also ordered 33 lakh RT-PCR kits and 37 rapid test kits," added the ICMR official.

The health ministry official emphasised that dedicated COVID-19 hospitals are the need of the hour and cited AIIMS, as the first dedicated Covid hospital in the capital, which has more than 250 beds and 150 ICUs.