Neeri to start testing for Covid-19 soon

Manka Behl | TNN | Apr 16, 2020, 04:17 IST

Nagpur: The National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (Neeri), a constituent laboratory of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), will soon be testing Covid-19 samples at the institute’s headquarters in the city.
TOI learns that the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) authorized CSIR to permit its laboratories for carrying out testing as per the guidelines. CSIR director general Shekhar Mande was empowered to identify labs that meet the guidelines.
Neeri will be the sixth laboratory in the region to carry out testing for Covid-19. The other testing centres are city’s Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Mayo hospital and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), and GMCH Akola. The Maharashtra Animal and Fishery Sciences University (MAFSU) lab in Nagpur too will get operational from Thursday. It will test samples from Wardha.
Neeri director Rakesh Kumar informed that the laboratory will be ready to start testing in a week. “We are in the process of procuring some chemicals and additional personal protective equipment. All other instruments are in place. We are also working on orienting our labs to ensure that entry and exit is proper,” said Kumar, adding that few rooms next to the laboratory are being emptied.
Kumar has constituted a three-member committee of outside experts to make sure that all the protocols are being followed. “Though we have our own protocols and ethics’ committee, we wanted to have one more layer of advisory,” the director added.
The laboratory testing will be done as per the usual guidelines. “We will get samples of the region from the state. After testing, we will give the reports to ICMR and other concerned agencies,” said Kumar.