Faridkot screening facility has capacity of 3,000 tests daily

FARIDKOT: With installation of new machines, the TB liquid culture, drug susceptibility testing and virology laboratory of Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital (GGSMCH) in Faridkot becomes country’s first of its kind Covid-19 screening lab with a capacity of 3,000 tests per day, said Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) vicechancellor Dr Raj Bahadur.

State minister for medical research and education, OP Soni, inaugurated the Faridkot lab on Friday. Soni said the state is working extensively to prevent spread of coronavirus and accelerate sapling, testing and treatment of patients.

“State-of-the-art labs have been set up at GGSMCH Faridkot, GMC Patiala, and GMC Amritsar to enhance testing capacity of corona patients in state. In these labs, Covid-19 testing is done using hi-tech machinery whereby the staff working in these labs is not at risk of contracting the disease,” he said.

The state has purchases three automatic RNA extraction machines for Covid-19 testing, one of which was installed in Faridkot on Friday after which its testing capacity has increased from 400 to 3,000 tests per day.

BFUHS V-C said, “The machine cost Rs 1.5 crore. Earlier, 2,000 samples were being sent to private labs for covid testing. Each test cost Rs 3,500, adding up to Rs 70 lakh per day and Rs 21 crore per month. So, setting up this machinery will be economically profitable as well.”

To increase the testing capacity in Punjab, BFUHS will setup more testing labs in state.