SRL Diagnostics on Saturday said Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has allowed their two clinical reference labs, at Mumbai and Gurgaon, to conduct tests for COVID-19.

'We feel honoured that ICMR has chosen two SRL clinical reference labs, based at Mumbai and Gurgaon, to conduct these tests and we intend to leave no stones unturned to further strengthen the diagnosis and help prevent propagation of this disease in our country,' SRL Diagnostics CEO Arindam Haldar said in a statement.

SRL has initiated testing, but currently there is a shortage situation for approved commercial kits for testing and PPE for sample collection, and, 'we are trying our level best to bring the supply situation to match possible demand,' he added.

Meanwhile, clinical lab CORE Diagnostics also said it has received approval from ICMR to start testing COVID-19 samples in its Gurugram-based lab.

ICMR has allowed a number of private labs to conduct the COVID-19 tests to scale the number of testing facilities in the country.