NEW DELHI, Nov 24: The national capital will have an additional COVID-19 testing facility with the inauguration on Tuesday of a mobile laboratory to conduct RT-PCR tests and give reports within six to eight hours of collecting the samples instead of the present time lag of 24 to 48 hours.
The mobile lab developed jointly by the SpiceHealth and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) was inaugurated by the union home minister Amit Shah in the presence of the health minister Harsh Vardhan and other dignitaries. The Director General of the ICMR, Balram Bhargava, the Chairman and Managing Director of SpiceJet, Ajay Singh and the CEO of SpiceHealth, Avani Singh were among those present on the occasion.
According to an official spokesman of the union health ministry, the SpiceHealth has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the ICMR for setting up testing facilities (laboratories) and collection centres across the country. To begin with, the first testing facility has been set up in Delhi. More such testing facilities will come up in different parts of the National Capital over the coming days. It is planned to set up 10 labs in the first phase. At the outset, each lab would be able to test up to 1,000 samples per day and testing would slowly be ramped up to 3,000 samples per day per lab.
Considering that the RT-PCR tests are most decisive and crucial for COVID-19 testing, the mobile labs will help ramping up the testing facilities. These tests will cost Rs. 499/- which will be entirely borne by the ICMR. The test report would be available within 6 to 8 hours from the time of sample collection compared to the average 24 to 48 hours taken by similar test reports, the spokesman said.
(Manas Dasgupta)