As the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) intensifies domestically, the Government of India has designated test sites across the country to expedite the process of diagnosis and treatment. Guidelines have been issued by the Indian Council of Medical Research for testing by private labs in the country. The government has also set price caps for such tests and roped in national laboratories to help. The test is free and involves the sampling of various bodily fluids. The results for these tests can take up to five hours.  According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, at least 111 labs will conduct test for diagnosis of novel coronavirus across the country. 

Private laboratories that have accreditation from the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories for real-time polymerase chain reaction for RNA virus will only be allowed to conduct COVID-19 tests, according to the guidelines. 

Private players can only conduct home collection of samples to ensure that people who are suspect of infection do not have to travel to reach the laboratory. Along with this, the labs are advised to take all appropriate biosafety and bio-security precautions.  All commercial kits for real time PCR-based diagnosis of the novel coronavirus must meet standards that are European or those of the US Food and Drug Administration, or both. 

Laboratories of the Central Scientific and Industrial Research and the Department of Science and Technology along with other biosafety level –3 (BSL-3) and BSL3+ facilities have been allowed to culture the virus and serve as additional testing sites.
 
Below is a list of the test centres across the country:
 

DELHI 
•    All India Institute Medical Sciences (AIIMS) 
•    National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) 

MAHARASHTRA 
•    Indira Gandhi Government Medical College, Nagpur 
•    Kasturba Hospital for Infectious Diseases, Mumbai 

RAJASTHAN 
•    Sawai Man Singh, Jaipur 
•    Dr. S.N Medical College, Jodhpur 
•    Jhalawar Medical College, Jhalawar 
•    SP Med. College, Bikaner 
•    RNT Medical College, Udaipur 

TAMIL NADU 
•    King's Institute of Preventive Medicine & Research, Chennai 
•    Government Medical College, Theni 
•    Tirunelveli Medical College, Tirunelveli 
•    Govt. Medical college, Thiruvaru 

UTTAR PRADESH 
•    King's George Medical University, Lucknow 
•    Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi   
•    Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Aligarh 

UTTARAKHAND 
•    Government Medical College, Haldwani 

WEST BENGAL 
•    National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Kolkata 
•    IPGMER, Kolkata 

MADHYA PRADESH 
•    All India Institute Medical Sciences, Bhopal 
•    National Institute of Research in Tribal Health (NIRTH), Jabalpur 

KERALA 
•    National Institute of Virology Field Unit 
•    Govt. Medical College, Thriuvananthapuram 
•    Govt. Medical College, Kozhikhode 
•    Govt. Medical College, Thrissur 

KARNATAKA 
•    Bangalore Medical College & Research Institute, Bangalore   
•    National Institute of Virology Field Unit Bangalore 
•    Mysore Medical College & Research Institute, Mysore 
•    Hassan Inst. of Med. Sciences, Hassan 
•    Shimoga Inst. of Med. Sciences, Shivamogga 

GUJARAT 
•    BJ Medical College, Ahmedabad 
•    M.P.Shah Government Medical College, Jamnagar 

HARYANA 
•    BPS Govt Medical College, Sonipat 
•    Pt. B.D. Sharma Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Rohtak 

HIMACHAL PRADESH 
•    Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh 
•    Dr. Rajendra Prasad Govt. Med. College, Kangra, Tanda 

JAMMU AND KASHMIR 
•    Sher-e- Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Srinagar   
•    Government Medical College, Jammu 
•    Government Medical College, Srinagar 

JHARKHAND 
•    MGM Medical College, Jamshedpur 

MEGHALAYA 
•    NEIGRI of Health and Medical Sciences, Shillong 

MANIPUR 
•    J N Institute of Medical Sciences Hospital, Imphal-East, Manipur 
•    Regional Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal 

ODISHA 
•    Regional Medical Research Center, Bhubaneswar    

PUNJAB 
•    Government Medical College, Patiala 
•    Government Medical College, Amritsar 

PUDUCHERRY 
•    Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research, Puducherry

 
TELANGANA 
•    Gandhi Medical College, Secunderabad 
•    Osmania Medical College, Hyderabad 

TRIPURA 
•    Government Medical College, Agartala 

BIHAR 
•    Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna    

CHANDIGARH  
•    Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research, Chandigarh

   
CHHATTISGARH 
•    All India Institute Medical Sciences, Raipur 

ANDAMAN and NICOBAR ISLANDS 
•    Regional Medical Research Centre, Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar 

ANDHRA PRADESH 
•    Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences, Tirupati 
•    Andhra Medical College, Visakhapatnam 
•    GMC, Anantapur 
•    Sidhartha Medical College, Vijayawada 
•    Rangaraya Medical College, Kakinada 

ASSAM 
•    Gauhati Medical College, Guwahati 
•    Regional Medical Research Center, Dibrugarh 
•    Silchar Medical College, Silchar 
•    Jorhat Medical College, Jorhat 
 

Further, with facilities like molecular diagnosis and next-generation sequencing, The National Institute of Virology lab in Pune is serving as the nodal lab for coronavirus testing in India. 
 
The Government of India is in the process of adding more laboratories for coronavirus testing. Currently, the labs are equipped with reagents to test up to 25,000 samples. 

Lav Agarwal the Joint Secretary of the Health Ministry emphasised that people should not come for testing unless they fit the testing criteria as defined by the Health Ministry and ICMR. 

"People should not just come testing for fashion or confidence-building measure. It is very important to understand that testing should be done as per the protocol defined for testing."