New Delhi, Jun 15 (IANS): The Delhi government on Monday issued a slew of guidelines for government and private labs after the Central Government's decision to ramp up testing in the city.

Delhi has the third-highest COVID-19 count after Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. The capital's tally of coronavirus infections has touched 41,182 as the number of deaths due to the disease climbed to 1,327.

The AAP government ordered all laboratories to work with full potential and increase testing capacity so that demand can be met.

The city government further directed that no samples should be taken without RT-PCR and that they should be taken by strictly following the ICMR guidelines.

There is no limit on the maximum number of samples that can be sent for testing in private labs, they said, adding that the labs will have to give results in 24-48 hours.

There are a total of 42 labs to test the corona samples in Delhi, out of which 18 are government labs and 24 private ones.

Home Minister Amit Shah had on Monday chaired an all-party meeting in the wake of a spurt in novel coronavirus cases in the national capital.

He had also chaired a high-level meeting with Union Health minister Harsh Vardhan, Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday.

"To prevent corona infections in Delhi, testing will be doubled in the next two days. The testing will be increased to three times after six days. Also, after a few days, testing will start at every polling station in the containment zones," Shah had tweeted after the meeting.