Rattan disclosed that the government had decided to relax the 25 percent duty on the import of swine flu testing kits. 'We are happy at the government decision. We too have demanded that government must give us some Tamiflu tablets for our technicians who will be involved in the process.'

SRL has also urged health ministry officials to provide it N-95 masks and personal protection equipments (PPE) at government price. 'A N-95 mask costs Rs.50 but in open market it costs around Rs.300. Similarly, a PPE costs NCDC Rs.206 but in the open market, it must be much more. If they can give us at government rates, it will be a great help.'

Asked when the outsourcing plans would fructify, a health ministry, who did not wish to be named, said: 'You will hear the news in near future.'

Laboratories in places like Delhi, Mumbai and Pune, which have reported large number of cases, are handling samples way beyond their capacity. For example, NCDC has the capacity to test around 150 samples a day but receives over 400 samples a day. It also gets samples from states like Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir.

Sometimes, the results take more than 48 hours. There have been at least two cases where the patient died before the test results came in. And, in one suspected case in Chhattisgarh, it took NCDC over 60 hours to send the result.

Over 1,700 people have already been infected by the contagious virus of which at least 25 people have died so far in India.