Clearing backlog a test for GSVM authorities

KANPUR: Although the recovery rate of Covid-19 patients in Kanpur has been 90%, lack of sample testing facility for a month after the nationwide lockdown was announced in March resulted in huge backlog, which the authorities concerned are still busy clearing, even after a Covid-19 lab started functioning at Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Memorial (GSVM) Medical College here in April.

Earlier, the samples collected were sent to the SGPGIMS and King George’s Medical University (KGMU), both in Lucknow, from where it took two to three days to get test reports.

“Now, we are testing 250 samples on an average per day. Sometimes, it goes to more than 400 tests a day. There is a need of more tests and GSVM Medical College is working to enhance the test capabilities. Hopefully, we will be able double the tests by the end of the month,” said Kanpur chief medical officer Ashok Shukla.

But he added that the lab was overburdened as it was catering to samples from many other districts such as Etawah, Kanpur Dehat, Jalaun, Auraiya and Kannauj where arrival of migrant workers in large numbers has resulted in spike in Covid-19 cases.

To overcome the problem, the GSVM medical college has added one more RTPCR machine to the existing one. If both the machines work 24 hours, 300 tests could be done, said a senior doctor involved in the process who did not want to be named.

However, the backlog is still there. The reports of samples that were submitted on May 25 had not come till May 28, said a senior doctor of CMO team.

On Wednesday, the government cleared the GSVM Medical College’s proposal to share an automatic nucleic acid extractor machine with Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS), Lucknow. The SGPGIMS has an advanced version of the machine and agreed to share it with Kanpur. “This is a shot in the arm. It will greatly add to our capabilities and we will be able to test 500 samples a day without manual labour,” the senior doctor said.

Arti Lal Chandani, the principal of GSVM medical college, was not available for her comments on the issue.

“The test rate in Kanpur is good given the infrastructure in place. Sampling has really improved,” said a doctor, adding there was a need to carry out 1500 to 2000 tests a day.