New Delhi: Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI)  has urged the government to ramp up COVID testing across the states and open up the vaccination for the age group 18-45 years.

FICCI President Uday Shankar said in a letter to the Union Health & Family Welfare Minister Harsh Vardhan, which reads, "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 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,"

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, adding that the states may be advised to utilize the facilities in the private sector to the maximum to achieve the desired testing capacity.

"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.

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