17 NEW LABS TO BOOST COVID-19 TESTS

LUCKNOW: Seventeen new laboratories set up in the government and private medical colleges in Uttar Pradesh are likely to give an impetus to sample tests for detection of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the Covid-19 disease. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath will inaugurate the new laboratories on Friday. A state government officer said 10 laboratories were being set up in the government medical colleges and seven in private medical colleges.

A record 1.46 lakh samples were tested in the state, taking the total tally of sample tests to 49.41 lakh since the start of the Covid pandemic in March. Currently, about one lakh sample tests are conducted by the rapid antigen method daily and 30,000-40,000 tests are done by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The remaining 3,000- 4,000 tests are being conducted by TrueNat machines established in government and private hospitals. Experts have been demanding that the state should focus on the RT-PCR test, considered the gold standard of Covid-19 testing.

LUCKNOW: Seventeen new laboratories set up in the government and private medical colleges in Uttar Pradesh are likely to give an impetus to sample tests for detection of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the Covid-19 disease.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath will inaugurate the new laboratories on Friday. A state government officer said 10 laboratories were being set up in the government medical colleges and seven in private medical colleges.

A record 1.46 lakh samples were tested in the state, taking the total tally of sample tests to 49.41 lakh since the start of the Covid pandemic in March. Currently, about one lakh sample tests are conducted by the rapid antigen method daily and 30,000-40,000 tests are done by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The remaining 3,000- 4,000 tests are being conducted by TrueNat machines established in government and private hospitals.

Experts have been demanding that the state should focus on the RT-PCR test, considered the gold standard of Covid-19 testing.

“The RT-PCR identifies cases early and accurately,” said Professor TN Dhole, former head of the department of microbiology at Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) in Lucknow.

Additional chief secretary (Home) Awanish Kumar Awasthi said in view of experts’ advice, chief minister Yogi Adityanath had directed the health department and the medical education department to set up more laboratories to increase RT-PCR tests. The 17 laboratories coming up in the government and private medical colleges will increase the number of RT-PCR tests. The state government had set a target of one lakh rapid antigen tests and 50,000 RT-PCR tests daily to intensify the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, Awasthi said.

A medical education department officer said the 10 government-run medical Colleges in which the new laboratories were being set up were located in Jalaun, Ambedkarnagar, Saharanpur, Banda, Badaun, Azamgarh, Ayodhya, Firozabad, Basti and Bahraich districts. These laboratories will test samples with RT-PCR machines, he said.

Professor Abbas Ali Mahdi, head of the biochemistry department at King George’s Medical University (KGMU), said the seven private medical colleges in which NABL (National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories) accredited laboratories were being set up included GS Medical College and Hospital, Hapur; Mayo Institute of Medical Sciences, Barabanki; Rohilkhand Medical College, Bareilly; Teerthankar Mahaveer Medical College and Research Centre, Moradabad; Hind Institute of Medical Sciences, Sitapur; Mulayam Singh Yadav Medical College, Meerut and Saraswathi Institute of Medical Sciences, Hapur.

Professor Mahdi has been tasked with setting up the laboratories in the private medical colleges.

Initially the laboratories in the private medical colleges will test 100 samples daily, which will be increased gradually, Professor Mahdi said.

Additional chief secretary, (Health and Family Welfare) Amit Mohan Prasad said in July the state health department established laboratories in district hospitals in Gonda, Mirzapur, Moradabad, Bareilly, Varanasi, Mirzapur and Lucknow to give a boost to RT-PCR tests. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath had directed the department to establish BSL-2 (Biosafety Level 2) laboratories in all the 75 districts of the state. The department will set up laboratories in those district hospitals that do not have laboratories, he said.