Govt earmarks ₹79.88 crore to activate labs in 24 institutions

THE FUND WILL BE UTILISED BY THE STATE MEDICAL EDUCATION DEPT IN STRENGTHENING LABORATORIES

LUCKNOW: The state government on Thursday allocated Rs 79.88 crore from the disaster response fund to activate laboratories in 24 government and autonomous medical colleges, medical institutions and medical universities.

Additional chief secretary (revenue) Renuka Kumar said the fund will be utilised by the state medical education department in strengthening the laboratories.

A state government officer said with the surge in the Covid-19 cases, chief minister Yogi Adityanath had directed the health department and the medical education department to increase the sample tests and contact tracing. The laboratories across the state are testing around 2 lakh samples daily out of which 90,000 samples are done by the RT-PCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) method, he said.

The samples are being tested at 125 government and 104 private laboratories. The health department is setting up 12 laboratories in the backward districts.

The 24 laboratories set up by the medical education department in the medical colleges will boost the sample tests, he said.