Chandigarh, Sep 2 (PTI) The Punjab Health Department on Wednesday reduced charges for a rapid antigen test for coronavirus by private labs to Rs 700.

Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu said the government has reduced the charges from Rs 1,000 to Rs 700, inclusive of the GST and other taxes.

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It has been left to the private labs to fix rates for the collection of samples from houses, he said in a statement here.

There are 45 ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) approved private labs conducting COVID tests in the state.

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The minister said the government has fixed a maximum of Rs 2,400 for a RT-PCR (Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction) test.

Punjab's COVID tally stood at 56,989 cases with 1,618 deaths on Wednesday.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)