The number of coronavirus cases in Maharashtra saw an exponential increase in one day, on March 31, 2020. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said that this was due to the results submitted by the private labs, of all the tests performed over four days.
But now, these private labs across the state have been asked not to collect samples to test coronavirus as these facilities lack the number of testing kits, which would be needed. Officials state that this situation is leading to the delay in testing and contact tracing.
As per data submitted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) around 1334 tests were conducted by private labs ion Monday and 399 samples were tested on Tuesday out of the 42,788 samples, and this decrease was observed due to the unavailability of the testing kits. Officials from the ministry permitted the 43 labs to test the samples, and these labs are said to have more than 16000 centres to collect samples. However, labs do not have as many testing kits as possible and the only company which supplies them in India - MyLab - has been finding it difficult to keep up with the demand. Other companies - Altona Diagnostics, Seegene and Biosenser - are also supplying kits, but owing to the global demand, their distribution has been disrupted and the prices have increased as well.
Suresh Kakani, the Additional Municipal Commissioner noted that the labs were collecting samples despite the shortage of testing kits and hence keeping the same in mind, a notice was sent to 10 private labs.
Addressing the same, Kankani told ET, “We advise private labs to collect samples only in line with the available inventory at hand. Private labs had committed, at the commencement of their inclusion to the COVID-19 testing programme, that they will have enough kits ready for deployment. The current situation is in violation and [parties] are advised that this be rectified immediately.”
Share
Tweet
