DW BUREAU / CHANDIGARH In one of the significant decisions, the Chandigarh Administration has permitted private laboratories to pick up samples from home.Manoj Parida, Adviser to Administer, tweeted on Monday in this regard. Home collection of samples for both RT-PCR and Rapid Antigen test are permitted. Meanwhile, the UT Administration has doubled Covid testing in Chandigarh. Against the WHO norm, which needs 148 daily testing in Chandigarh, 415 tests are being done on a daily average, he further said. Meanwhile, countering the surge in Covid cases upfront, Punjab Government has also upgraded the viral testing of COVID-19 in the State to 20, 000 tests per day, informed OP Soni, Medical Education and Research Minister Punjab after inaugurating Corona labs at Punjab Biotechnology Incubator and Punjab Forensic Science Laboratory, Mohali jointly with. Balbir Singh Sidhu, Health Minister Punjab. A spike in cases is being observed nationwide but we in Punjab are geared up to meet the challenge. Punjab is the Frontrunner State in the country to upgrade its health infrastructure and viral testing capacity at a record pace, said Medical Education and Research Minister. He informed that four laboratories would be operational in the State from today onwards whereby the pace of viral testing for COVID-19 would escalate from existing16000 tests to 20,000 tests per day. The other two labs to be operational today are Regional Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, Jalandhar and viral testing lab at Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (GADVASU), Ludhiana.India's novel coronavirus tally crossed the 22-lakh mark on Monday with 62,064 new cases, while the recoveries surged to over 15.35 lakh, the Health Ministry said. The death toll from the pathogen climbed to 44,386 with 1,007 more fatalities, according to the ministry data. (editor@dailyworld.in)