Coronavirus Pandemic: Medical colleges in state to run viral-diagnosis labs

In order to increase the testing capacity for coronavirus in the state, Maharashtra Medical Education Minister Amit Deshmukh has proposed allowing all the state medical colleges to conduct tests. Once the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) approves the proposal, eight medical colleges and 13 universities will assist the state to conduct an additional 2,520 tests on a daily basis. 

Once this proposal gets a nod from ICMR, the government medical colleges in Kolhapur, Jalgaon, Baramati, Yavatmal, Akola, Gondia, Chandrapur, Latur, Nanded, and Ambajogai will start carrying out COVID-19 testing labs. 

Maharashtra had reported its first case of COVID-19 on March 9. Back then, the state only had one testing facility - National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune. NIV used to conduct 25 tests a day. However, as the state health department anticipated a further rise in the number of cases, they started testing facilities in seven government and civic-run medical institutions.

By the end of March, the state witnessed a jump of 65 per cent in the number of asymptomatic patients. Following which, the health experts suggested running more tests to break the chain of infection.

The state then tied up with four private labs –Thyrocare, Suburban Diagnostics, Metropolis Healthcare Limited and Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital and Research Centre. However, with the approval of ICMR, 11 more private labs were also approved recently to carry out COVID-19 tests.

“Currently, all government labs (there are more than four labs in the state now) together have a testing capacity of 2,500 daily. With the addition of 3,500 tests at 15 (earlier 4+newly added 11) private laboratories, the number has increased to 6,000,” Dr Sanjay Mukherjee, secretary of Medical Education and Drugs Department (MEDD) told HT.

Along with this, Dr Mukherjee has also proposed that all the private medical colleges must also be permitted to carry out tests under the observation of the authorised testing centres.

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