Prayagraj testing 1.5K samples, aims at 2K per day
PRAYAGRAJ: The Covid-19 testing lab at Moti Lal Nehru Medical College (MLNMC) in Prayagraj has the capacity to conduct 1,000 tests a day against around 1,700 to 2,000 samples being received by it every day.
“These samples are arriving not just from Prayagraj district, which accounts for the bulk, but also neighbouring districts of Pratapgarh, Kaushambi and Chitrakoot. So on an average, we usually have a pendency of 600odd samples per day despite our increased testing,” said Dr Monica, head of the department of microbiology, MLNMC.
To make up for this pendency, the lab has just received an ‘automatic RNA extractor’ machine from ICMR that it plans to make functional from the next week.
“This will increase our testing capacity from 1,000 tests a day to 1,500 a day,” she said.
Currently, on an average, a patient has to wait for five to seven days for the result.
District nodal officer Dr Rishi Sahai said that testing had been scaled up significantly during the past one month in the district. Now everyday around 1,500 tests on an average were being conducted using rapid antigen method and TrueNat machines in addition to RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) method. Every negative result of rapid antigen tests was also being verified using the RT-PCR test, he added.
“So almost 80% of the samples are ending up being tested using the RT-PCR test,” he explained. He said that plan was to scale up the tests to 2,000 per day.
MLN Medical College principal Dr SP Singh said an analysis of Covid-19 related deaths by experts of his medical college found that the 70% of the deaths that took place in the first fortnight of July 2020 happened within 48 hours of the patient testing positive—an indication of delayed testing.
“The analysis found that 80% of these patients who lost their lives showed laxity and delayed getting themselves tested for five to six days, despite developing symptoms for the virus,” Dr Singh said. “By the time they arrived in the hospital, they needed ventilators or other breathing support and died shortly,” he added. The findings of analysis have also been shared by MLNMC officials with district and divisional level officials.