Kalamassery MCH gets medical research council’s approval for advanced testing

KOCHI: The Kalamassery Medical College Hospital on Saturday received the nod from the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) to conduct real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT PCR) tests at its virology lab. With this, confirmation of Covid-19 cases will be become swifter here. On the first day itself, the laboratory tested 12 samples under a team led by Dr J Lancy, head of microbiology department,  responsible for the tests. “From now on, the test results will be available in four hours. We received the approval at noon and the first batch was tested at 3pm,” said an official with RT-PCR unit.

The laboratory was set up at a cost of `1 crore under the joint aegis of the district administration and the medical college hospital. The lab has two RT PCR machines, which can process 90 samples each. “Initially, we may not be able to test 90 samples in each machine daily as we are yet to become familiar with its operation. Hence, we have decided to process 30 samples and then scale up,” said an official.

Other centres
RT-PCR tests are being conducted in the state with ICMR approval at the National Institute of Virology, Alappuzha, and Medical College Hospitals in Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode, and Thrissur. According to officials, similar facilities will also come up at Kottayam, Kannur, and Manjeri.“Earlier, we used to send the samples to Alappuzha. When the numbers increased, we began sending them to Thiruvananthapuram. However, we had to wait for almost a day for the results,” said a health official.  

Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology is the mentor organisation for the virology lab set up at the hospital in Kalamassery. The trial operations of the lab had begun on Thursday.P T Thomas, MLA, allotted `27.57 lakh from his development fund for setting up the bio-safety cabinet, while Hibi Eden, MP, allotted `36 lakh for procuring test kits.