Israel, India to step up cooperation in COVID-19 fight

NEW DELHI

Israel decided to send India this week a team of scientists working to develop a rapid testing kit for coronavirus, the Israeli Embassy in India said on Friday.

The Israeli team will work in All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi. The testing of first phase was already done in Israel and the last stage will now be carried out in India for the testing kit which can give results within a minute, according to a statement by the embassy.

It also said Israel's ministries of foreign affairs, defense and health will lead an unprecedented anti-COVID-19 cooperation operation between India and Israel.

The infection tally in India is around 1.28 million on Friday with 49,310 fresh cases reported within last 24 hours, according to government data. This is the highest single-day spike in cases in the country. Meanwhile, 740 more deaths reported during this time took the the tally to 30,601.