India has low cost testing kit in the world:COVID-19
You can’t take swabs from thousands of people who are quarantined.
You can screen their blood rapidly and if it is positive, you can take a swab immediately,” he says. Antibody tests haven’t been widely used for respiratory viruses, but since SARS Cov-2 is a new virus, people believe it will have some role in detecting exposure at this stage.
As of April 1, around 126 government-run labs were functional and 51 private labs given the go-ahead for diagnostic PCR tests.
With these tests, virologists look for a certain sequence that defines the virus by amplifying the nucleic acids that are in the virus.
Many private labs have started work and their large networks, it is expected, will help further the reach of testing. “So far, sample collection has been done from homes of patients.
We are now isolating a few dedicated centers for sample collection,” says Metropolis Healthcare Ltd, which began testing in Mumbai and is awaiting approval for operations in Delhi, Chennai, Rajkot and Bangalore.
Governments are trying to ramp up capacities. At the end of March, Kerala had 1.63 lakh people under surveillance, 7,485 samples had been tested and 215 positive cases were under treatment.
The state government says COVID-19 care centres have been set up in all districts for people who were not residents of the state, like tourists, but had been advised home isolation.
In Bangalore, fever clinics have been set up for people with travel history who develop COVID-19 symptoms.
“The government has asked all of us to get prepared, but did not give an indication of how large the testing requirement maybe,” says Vijay Chandru of Strand Life Sciences, whose lab in Gurgaon expects to start testing soon.
The lab, once set up, will have a capacity of 500-1,000 tests per day, he says. The government has recommended a cap on cost at Rs 4,500—this includes Rs 1,500 as a screening test for suspect cases and an additional Rs 3,000 for the confirmation test.
The state government says COVID-19 care centres have been set up in all districts for people who were not residents of the state, like tourists, but had been advised home isolation.
In Bangalore, fever clinics have been set up for people with travel history who develop COVID-19 symptoms.
“The government has asked all of us to get prepared, but did not give an indication of how large the testing requirement maybe,” says Vijay Chandru of Strand Life Sciences, whose lab in Gurgaon expects to start testing soon.
The lab, once set up, will have a capacity of 500-1,000 tests per day, he says. The government has recommended a cap on cost at Rs 4,500—this includes Rs 1,500 as a screening test for suspect cases and an additional Rs 3,000 for the confirmation test.
Comments
Post a Comment